Brazil’s Tradener signs first direct gas supply agreement with Bolivia

Tradener revealed on March 7 that it was set to become the first privately owned Brazilian firm to buy natural gas directly from Bolivia, without the national oil company (NOC) Petrobras acting as an agent or intermediary.

Until recently, state-owned Petrobras was the only organisation in Brazil that had the right to buy gas directly from Bolivia and then sell it directly to customers. Under the reforms adopted last year, though, private traders may now procure up to 2.2mn cubic metres per day of gas on their own, and Tradener is the first to take advantage of the opportunity.

In a statement, Tradener reported that it had signed a contract with YPFB, Bolivia’s NOC, for the purchase of 2.2 mcm per day over a period of two years. It did not reveal the financial terms of the deal but said it would be able to import the fuel via the Gasbol pipeline and deliver it to any customer served by the Gasbol system, including thermal power plants (TPPs) as well as industrial facilities that consume gas.

Walfrido Avila, the company’s president, indicated that Tradener might be willing to buy larger amounts of Bolivian gas once that two-year period expires. “This contracted volume is an initial quantity that may increase, depending on the conditions of sale and distribution in the Brazilian market, within the scope of the free gas market,” he said.

Tradener has a history of exploring new horizons in Brazil’s fuel and energy sector. The company became the country’s first electricity trader about 20 years ago and is also licensed by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) to trade in natural gas, and it is now the first to move into cross-border gas supplies.

Avila, for his part, described Tradener’s deal with YPFB as a milestone for the Brazilian energy industry for several reasons. “The first [of these] is the effective presence of [an electricity] trader in the country’s gas supply market, and the second is the possibility that we open up supplying our thermoelectric plants with gas, enabling the consequent export of electricity to neighbouring countries,” he explained.