Brazil to supply energy to Argentina: minister

Mar 19, 2008 - Xinhua

Brazil will supply energy to Argentina during the winter season so as to relieve the neighbor from the energy crisis, Brazilian Minister of Mining and Energy Edison Lobao confirmed Tuesday.

According to Lobao, 300 to 400 megawatts of power will be sent on a daily basis, and Argentina will repay the "loan" at a later opportunity.

"It is not a sales operation, but an exchange. We send them energy as we can, they will give it back at a later stage," the minister told the press after attending the inauguration ceremony of the national operations control center to be run by Transpetro, state-owned oil and gas transportation company.

When responding to a question about the privatization of government companies in the energy sector, Lobao denied such a possibility.

He stressed that it is necessary to find a solution to the losses that seven energy distributors have been registering, and that one proposal would be to merge those facilities into one single state-owned company, with a centralized administration.