The Urucu–Manaus pipeline is a natural gas pipeline in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It allows use of the natural gas from Urucu, which is the largest onshore natural gas reserve in Brazil. The gas is used to substitute diesel and fuel oil

Fuel oil

Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking, fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash...

 for the electricity production in the state of Amazonas, and the pipeline supplies cities of Coari

Coari

Coari is a Brazilian city , in the Amazon region. It is also one of the largest cities of the Amazonas state. It is the seat of the Territorial Prelature of Coari. The area has reserves of oil and natural gas....

, Codajás

Codajás

Codajás is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Its population was 19,957 and its area is 18,712 km²....

, Anori

Anori

Anori is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Its population was 12,731 and its area is 5,795 km²....

, Anamã

Anamã

Anamã is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Its population was 6,889 and its area is 2,454 km²....

, Caapiranga

Caapiranga

Caapiranga is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Its population was 9,996 and its area is 9,457 km²....

, Manacapuru

Manacapuru

Manacapuru is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Its population was 85,144 and its area is 7,329 km². It is also one of the biggest cities of the state, and shares its name with Rio Manacapuru, a tributary to the Amazon River....

, Iranduba

Iranduba

Iranduba is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Its population was 40,436 and its area is 2,215 km², making it one of the smallest municipalities in terms of size. It is located directly south of Manaus....

, and Manaus

Manaus

Manaus is a city in Brazil, the capital of the state of Amazonas. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers. It is the most populous city of Amazonas, according to the statistics of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and is a popular ecotourist destination....

. The pipeline was inaugurated on 26 November 2009, and it is operated by Transportadora Urucu-Manaus S.A., a subsidiary of Petrobras.

Sections

The 661 kilometres (410.7 mi) long pipeline consists of three sections. As a first section, the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pipeline from the production facility in Urucu to Coari was switched to carrying natural gas, while parallel to this a new 285 kilometres (177.1 mi) long 10 inches (254 mm) LPG (GLPduto) pipeline was constructed. The second section connects Coari and Anamã and third section connects Anamã-Manaus. In addition to the main trunkline, the pipeline has seven branches.

Technical features

The construction of the pipeline was completed in October 2009. In the first stage of its operation, the pipeline is transporting 17 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year. The initial capacity of the pipeline is 20 bcm of natural gas per year.