Snapshot: Brazil’s energy giant Cosan

Cosan has taken another step to consolidate itself as one of Brazil’s energy giants. 

On Monday, the company’s subsidiary Compass Gás e Energia concluded the acquisition of Copel’s 51% stake in Paraná state’s gas distributor Companhia Paranaense de Gás (Compagas). 

The 906 million-real (US$167mn) transaction was announced in July. 

Compass is the controller of holding Commit Gás (formerly Gaspetro), which owns 24.5% of Compagás. 

The remaining 24.5% in Compagás is held by Mitsui Gás, which is a Compass partner in Commit, with a 49% stake. 

Compagás’ concession contract runs through June 2054, and the company serves over 54,000 customers in 16 municipalities with 821,000m3/d of natural gas through a pipeline network spanning 880km.

Compass CEO Antonio Simões is upbeat about the Paraná market. 

“The state has very suitable demographic and geographical characteristics for expanding access to the benefits of piped gas. Our aim is to unlock this value by investing in bringing services to the state,” he said in a statement.

Compass controls Rio Grande do Sul state’s gas utility Sulgás, São Paulo state’s Comgás and Necta Gás Natural, as well as holding Norgás, which owns minority stakes in gas distributors in the states of Ceará (Cegás), Alagoas (Algás), Sergipe (Sergás) and Pernambuco (Copergás), as well as a majority stake in the concessionaire in Rio Grande do Norte (Potigás).  

Norgás may be sold to Infragás e Energia, recently acquired by Energisa, which has a promissory share purchase agreement with Compass. 

Compass also holds minority stakes in Mato Grosso do Sul state’s MSGás, Santa Catarina’s SCGás and Rio de Janeiro’s CEG-Rio. 

The company additionally controls Edge, a solutions provider for the unregulated or free gas market, which owns the natural gas regasification terminal of São Paulo (TRSP). 

Compass is currently involved in a legal and regulatory battle over the control of the Subida da Serra gas pipeline, which is projected to connect the TRSP to Comgás' piped gas distribution grid.  

Besides Compass, Cosan holds a 50% stake in Brazil’s second largest fuel distributor Raízen, a joint venture with Shell.  

The company, which is also one of the country’s main power traders, has two second generation (2G) ethanol plants in operation and is building another four, while working on the project of three plants. 

The plan is to have all of them fully operational by 2027, with combined capacity to produce 686,000m3/d of biofuel. 

Raízen also operates in the biogas, electromobility and cogeneration markets.