Natural gas consumption grows in industries in the Amazon

Manaus (AM) – The more competitive price of natural gas (NG) has leveraged industrial demand for the fuel. Data from the Companhia de Gás do Amazonas (Cigás), concessionaire of the public service of distribution and commercialization of natural gas, indicate a historical mark of NG consumption by companies of the local industrial park.

Cigás’ balance sheet on the volume of natural gas traded in 2022 reveals that demand from the industrial segment reached an average of 173.2 thousand cubic meters per day (m³/d). This result is 13% higher than that recorded in the same period of 2021, when the average consumption reached 153.5 thousand m³/d.

The increase in demand for natural gas by companies in the Manaus industrial park is due to different factors, including the lower price of natural gas compared to other energy alternatives, which impacts on the level of competitiveness of industries.

The largest consumer of fuel in the industrial segment in Amazonas, Placibrás da Amazônia, better known as PCE, has been using natural gas since December 2019. The company uses NG to produce saturated steam to power a paper production plant and a corrugated cardboard.

According to the representative of PCE’s Industrial Management, Edson Silva, the motivation behind the decision to use natural gas was the environmental issue, as the fuel provides clean burning. He also highlights the savings in energy production and the competitive cost as relevant benefits generated from the use of natural gas.

A survey carried out by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), in the period from January 1st to 7th, confirms the economic competitiveness of natural gas. The study indicates that the natural gas used in industries, in the Amazon, saves up to 61% compared to other fuels.

Data from the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) also point to the competitive advantage of natural gas distributed in the state. The October 2022 edition, which is the most recent of the Natural Gas Industry Monthly Monitoring Bulletin, published by the said ministry, demonstrates that Amazonas has the lowest tariff in Brazil for the industrial, vehicular, commercial and residential segments.

additional benefits

The benefits of natural gas go beyond economics. The company Fortlev, a consumer unit since 2020, uses the input in furnace heating, responsible for the molds that form the plastic reservoirs in the manufacture of water reservoirs, through a process called rotational molding.

The company’s representative, Douglas Borges, points out that natural gas provides safety in the process, since it favors better control of important variables, such as flow, pressure, temperature and calorific value, essential in the standardization of the process. According to Borges, with this, Fortlev manages to maintain the same standard as the units in the rest of the country, which use the same energy supply modal.

In addition to its use in heating furnaces, natural gas has a wide range of applications. In industries, the fuel can also be used in generating electricity and steam, heating dryers, air conditioning, cooking food, supplying vehicle fleets and forklifts.

It should also be noted that the distribution of NG is carried out through a channeled network, the so-called gas pipelines, which are buried, eliminating the need for storage and ensuring continuous supply. Another gain is the fact that the use of the raw material reduces the downtime of industrial processes for cleaning equipment, as it does not emit particles and also achieves temperature curves that guarantee a high level of fuel efficiency.

Natural gas market and the ZFM

The concessionaire serves around 60 companies in the Industrial Pole of Manaus (PIM). These beneficiary companies are from different sectors: electronics, two-wheelers, paper and cardboard, chemicals, beverages, mechanics and metallurgy.

The director-president of Cigás, René Levy Aguiar, points out that the PIM is the great engine of the economy of Amazonas. According to him, the actions of the State Government aimed at strengthening the Manaus Free Trade Zone (ZFM) and also the expansion of new economic matrices, such as the natural gas market, are providing this sum of efforts and providing that, more and more , different economic activities act in cooperation, to the benefit of the state as a whole.

“Cigas is proud to contribute to this important vector of development, which is the Manaus Free Trade Zone”,

René Levy Aguiar, CEO of Cigás.

He also points out that the Company continues to invest in works to expand the natural gas distribution network in order to serve new industries and other segments. Currently, Cigás has over 12,600 contracted consumer units in the thermoelectric, industrial, vehicular, commercial, residential and self-generation/liquefaction segments.

*With advisory information

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