Petrobras to Supply Steelmaker CSN with Gas

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) has signed a contract with the steelworks Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) to supply natural gas to the latter’s plant in Rio de Janeiro, making Petrobras the chief supplier among competitors, the oil and gas company said.

Petrobras and CSN aim to focus on a long-term relationship and create new opportunities tied to the pair’s decarbonization targets, Petrobras said.

During the second quarter, Petrobras signed and amended natural gas supply deals in the free consumer category, with an approximate volume of 940,000 cubic meters per day (33.3 million cubic feet per day), according to Petrobras.

“Petrobras and CSN formed their first business relationship in the natural gas free market, betting on the development of solutions that make for an open, competitive, transparent, and sustainable trading environment, which will constantly grow in Brazil and serve as a step toward the joint assessment of new decarbonization and energy transition solutions”, said Maurício Tolmasquim, Petrobras’ Energy Transition and Sustainability Director. 

The pair aims to use the collaboration to develop optimizations that will enable the use of natural gas in other processes. These processes will be tied to the two companies’ energy transition targets.

Under the agreement, CSN and Petrobras will migrate the President Vargas Power Plant in Volta Redonda to the natural gas free market.

“With this move, CSN has become the foremost Brazilian industrial consumer of natural gas operating in the free market, contracting not only the molecule but also the outgoing transportation, following its strategy of actively operating in the natural gas segment as a means to bring down costs and add value to the Company”, said Rogerio Pizeta, CNS’s Energy Director.

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