Bolivia Minister: Chavez's gas pipeline to Argentina improbable
By Aleksander Boyd
London 19.03.06 | Uruguayan daily Observa reports that Juan Ramon Quintana, Minister of Bolivia's Presidency, declared yesterday in Brasilia that the pipeline proposed by Hugo Chavez to supply gas to Argentina, crossing the Amazon jungle, is a bit improbable (in the original "poco probable" sic). "We don't give too much credit to the project" expressed Quintana, deeming it as pharaonic owing to its sheer proportions. He added "we suspect that it is the dream of some civil servant, but from Bolivia's viewpoint, is a bit unfeasible."
The 8.000 kilometer pipeline that seeks to meet energy demands from the Caribbean basin all the way to Argentina's pampas (plains), would require an investment to the tune of $20 billion.
Hugo Chavez, however, has stated that the project has been evaluated and its perfectly feasible.
Environmentalists are yet to utter one word of criticism with regards to the immense ecological damage that the undertaking of such a project would cause to Amazonia.
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