Petrobras’ Rota 3 gas pipeline to start operating this quarter

Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras is on track to begin operating the Rota 3 gas pipeline as planned this quarter. 

“Work on the Rota 3 gas pipeline has been completed and work on the UPGN [natural gas processing unit] is in the final commissioning stages and in the process of being authorized by the ANP,” the company’s press office confirmed to BNamericas.

Rota 3 was built to transport natural gas from the Santos basin pre-salt to the Gaslub hub, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro.

With an extension of 355km - 307km via sea and 48km on land - the pipeline has the capacity to transport up to 18Mm3/d (million cubic meters per day) of gas.

When Rota 3 is fully operational, the natural gas grid of the Santos basin pre-salt, which includes the Rota 1 and Rota 2 pipelines, will have a total capacity to transport around 44Mm3/d. 

The Gaslub hub includes the new UPGN, which will receive the gas from Rota 3.

Formerly known as Comperj, Gaslub has been delayed for several years since it was part of the Lava Jato anti-graft probe. 

Lava Jato, which began by looking into contract irregularities at Petrobras, unearthed a network of corruption involving company executives and even implicating former presidents and high-ranking government officials in various countries in Latin America.

After terminating the UPGN construction contract with Chinese-Brazilian consortium Kerui-Método, Petrobras hired DBR Energies and Toyo Setal to conclude the works.