Correa: Gas pipeline is an example that political will gives results

Via Mathaba
Caracas, Oct 12 (ABN).- The President of the Republic of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, considers that the start of operation of the Trans-Oceanic Gas Pipeline Antonio Ricaurte “is an example that the political will can generate concrete results promoting the integration that region needs so much”.

The Ecuadorian Head of State, who attended to the inauguration act of the gas pipeline as special guest, assured that the construction of this structure is a step forward to make the integration project a reality.

“The man whereby is baptized this gas pipeline, Antonio Ricaurte, who gave his life for the independence, he would be proud of this work. The dream of building an integrated nation of nations is finally becoming a reality”, he stressed.

“This is part of the South American integration. And we are only talking about energetic diversification, not only in Ecuador, but in the region. At the Guayaquil Gulf will start the gas exploration, which should have started 25 years ago, but it was consigned to oblivion by the neo-liberal interests that dominated the country”, he noted.

Correa also congratulated all those people who made possible the gas pipeline construction in such a short period of time.

“The construction of this infrastructure that will benefit initially Venezuela and Colombia, and that in long term will bring prosperity to all the region, took only 14 months to be built, which is a proof that with political will, with union and integration vocation , results can surely be achieved”, he added.

Furthermore, Correa explained that with the recent measures took by his Government about Ecuadorian hydrocarbons, he expects to give a new boost to the economy of his country.

“And all the paths seem to go to the Bank of the South, because we need to have an organization with integration vocation not an annuitant one like those banks we have depended on to generate a development that has never arrived, because we have got into debt up to the top”, he assured.

Correa reminded that regional strength could start not only with the creation of the Bank of the South, “but also a South American regional currency that would mean the confidence in the economies of the countries working on a definitive integration”.

The Trans-Oceanic Gas Pipeline Antonio Ricaurte was inaugurated after presidents Hugo Chávez, Venezuela, Álvaro Uribe, Colombia, and Rafael Correa, Ecuador, as special guest, opened the main filling valve, located in Campo Ballena, Manaure Municipality, Guajira Department, Colombia.

This gas project, with an investment of 325 million dollars, initially expects that Colombia will supply gas to Venezuela until 2011, and later on the relation will be on the contrary.

For the stretch located in Colombian territory, the investment is a little more than 100 million dollars, without including the 10% aimed to social investment.

Last year, presidents of Venezuela and Colombia invited Panama to be part of this energetic initiative.

Translated by Ernesto Aguilera