Batista's MPX May Start Building Power Plant in 2011 After Brazil Gas Find
MPX Energia SA, an energy company controlled by billionaire Eike Batista, may start building a power plant in northern Brazil next year to burn natural gas from a 15-trillion-cubic-feet deposit, Chief Financial Officer Rudolph Ihns said.
MPX is finalizing permits and sales contracts for the 1,863-megawatt plant, which will take about two years to complete and may be expanded later, Ihns said in an interview yesterday. The plant will be located near the onshore basin of Parnaiba, where Batista’s OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA will develop the gas reserves.
“With the confirmation of the volumes of gas, we can gradually increase the project,” Ihns said by telephone. “There are very good volumes of gas in the region.”
Accelerating growth in Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, will boost demand for energy from coal and natural-gas plants even as the country expands hydroelectric generation, Ihns said. Brazil’s economy grew 9 percent in the first quarter, the most in 15 years, driven by domestic demand and a surge in investments.
OGX said Aug. 16 seven exploration blocks in the Parnaiba basin may hold 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. OGX is the operator of the blocks with a 66.6 percent stake, and MPX owns the rest.
MPX has already signed contracts to sell electricity from three plants that will burn coal from Colombia. The company plans to invest $1.9 billion over a decade to tap Colombian coal deposits.
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Millard in Rio de Janeiro at pmillard1@bloomberg.net
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