In early February, OGX Maranhao, a company formed by OGX and MPX, began the civil construction work on the project for production and transporting of natural gas in the Parnaiba Basin. The work consists of opening dedicated strips of land, through which approximately 8 km of gas-pipelines will pass, which will transport the gas produced, as well as the construction of a Gas Treatment Unit (GTU). The consortium hired to deploy the project is formed by 2 companies, Valerus-Geogas.
The GTU is being built near the Parnaiba Thermoelectric Unit (TEU), in the municipality of Santo Antônio dos Lopes. The GTU will process the gas produced to remove the liquid in it, filter and heat the product and bring it to the required specifications. From this unit a gas pipeline will deliver the ready processed gas to the MPX TEU. The GTU will cover 87,500 m² and will employ approximately 450 employees in the construction phase, which is expected to be completed in the second half of this year. In the operational phase 30 employees will work in the unit.
The natural gas to be processed and produced in the GTU will come from the Gaviao Real field (located in Santo Antônio dos Lopes) and later from the Gaviao Azul field (Capinzal do Norte). Gas production is due to start in the second half of 2012 and may reach up to 6 million cubic feet per day of natural gas. This is equivalent to doubling the current production volume of onshore natural gas in Brazil.
MPX, which is building the Parnaiba TEU, received in the last week of January the first gas power generator on the site. The company will deploy units totaling an installed capacity of more than 1,500 MW. The Parnaiba TEU will be the largest thermoelectric complex for power generation in Brazil. The company has licenses which will allow it to reach 3,722 MW capacity.
