Chavez says plans for South American gas pipeline on hold

Plans for a vast natural-gas pipeline stretching from Venezuela to Argentina are frozen due to lack of political will among South America’s leaders, President Hugo Chavez said Friday.

“The project is cold, there weren’t any more meetings,” Chavez said during a televised speech.
Chavez, who championed the pipeline proposal as a means of satisfying the continent’s energy requirements for decades to come, did not blame any leader in particular for backtracking.

Energy experts were skeptical about the project, saying it faces overwhelming economic, environmental and technological challenges. The proposed route cuts through the Amazon basin — traversing delicate ecosystems, indigenous communities and a challenging topography laced with rivers — before ending in markets where natural gas fetches relatively low prices.

International Herald Tribune