NATURAL GAS TRANSPORTATION IN BRAZIL: INTRODUCTION OF NEW COORDINATION MECHANISMS FOR INVESTMENTS

摘要

Despite of the liberalization of Brazil energy sector in the 1990s, Petrobras remained as the leader company in the natural gas sector. The liberalization process did not encouraged new investors to participate in the industry, especially, in the natural gas transportation segment. The consensus that natural gas regulation failed to induce investments, specially from private companies, has culminated in the approval of a new law for the natural gas sector in Brazil in March 2009 (Law No. 11,909). The most significant change brought by this new Law was the new role of government in coordinating investments in the transportation segment. Under this law, the Brazilian government must plan the network pipelines; estimate the size of the demand for the service of transporting gas and organize bidding to select investors for new pipelines projects. The new law emphasizes the importance of coordination mechanisms to reduce the risk for investments in segments with high transaction costs. In this sense, this paper has identified, through the neo-institutional view, the coordination mechanisms brought by the new law. It also analyzes how this mechanisms can contribute for the decrease of investment risks and, consequently, for the development of the natural gas industry in Brazil.