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Part 4: Bolivia-Brazil Pipeline Expansion Project The 3,000 km Bolivia-Brazil pipeline, completed in 1999, connects the Santa Cruz gas fields in Bolivia to Porto Alegre in Southern Brazil. Sections of the pipeline traverse several fragile and important ecosystems: the Pantanal wetlands, the world's largest wetland covering both Bolivia and Brazil; Bolivia's Chaco forest, an area of primary tropical forest, and the threatened Mata Atlantica Rainforest in Brazil.
Gas TransBoliviano SA, the gas transportation consortium who own the Bolivian section of the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline, (prime partners Enron, Shell, Petrobras and British Gas) plan to expand its capacity by laying a new 'looped' pipeline along the existing route and by constructing four gas turbine compressor stations on the 500km Bolivian portion.
The cumulative impacts of this highly contentious pipeline continue to blight the forests and forest peoples along its route. Bolivia's lowland forest communities live with persistent and damaging environmental and social impacts caused by the pipeline. The new expansion project will not only aggravate existing secondary impacts but also introduce new primary impacts from noise pollution, workers camps, depletion of game and fish stocks and environmental degradation. Santa Cruz indigenous organizations have also voiced concerns about GTB's failure to adequately inform and consult with them about the proposed expansion and the divisive tactics being used to undermine established indigenous authorities.
The United States Export-Import Bank is currently reviewing a proposal to finance the expansion project. Any investment of US tax dollars in Bolivian gas transportation would be particularly controversial given market uncertainty and the concerns of indigenous communities already impacted by the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline. Ex-Im would effectively be funding the stimulation of further rapid intensification of gas exploration and production in Bolivia which could stymie the conversion to sustainable renewable energy alternatives in the United States for decades.
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