[NYTr] Colombia, Venez Open Gas Pipeline

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Colombia, Venez Open Gas Pipeline

Bogota, Oct 12 (Prensa Latina) The gas pipeline that will join the
Venezuelan city of Maracaibo with the Colombia locality of Ballenas
will be opened Friday in the presence of Presidents Alvaro Uribe and
Hugo Chavez.

The meeting between the two statesmen is hopeful because among issues
to analyze is an exchange of prisoners between the Colombian government
and guerrilla, of which the Venezuelan statesman is the main conflict
mediator.

Also on the list is bilateral trade, the possibility of Venezuela's
return to the Andean Community of Nations, and regional energy
cooperation.

According to Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo, the Colombian-Venezuelan
gas pipeline, Antonio Ricaurte section, could be the initial link for a
wider project that will firstly be extended to Ecuador, and later to
Peru and Bolivia.

The 137-mile-long gas pipeline required an investment over $300 million
and will take Colombian gas to the Venezuelan state of Zulia in the
first five years, and by 2012 will bring that resource back.

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PL-2