Construction of the Venezuela-Colombia gas pipeline formally agreed to on June 15 would start on July 8, the head of Venezuela's gas authority Enegas, Jorge Luis Sanchez, said on Monday.

"We hope that on July 8 we will start this work with the first solder," he told Venezuela's Bolivarian news agency (ABN), saying that he had met with Colombia's energy and mines ministry officials.

Paperwork for the construction was moving ahead and there had been significant progress on prices and tariffs, he said. The pipeline, 230 km long, would go from Punta Ballenas, in Colombia, to Maracaibo, the capital of the Venezuelan state of Zulia, he said.

Foreign ministers of the two nations inked the deal on June 15 to build the pipeline, which will cost some 280 million U.S. dollars.

The two countries hoped that the gas pipeline would eventually be extended to Colombia's Pacific coast, where it could be used to sell Venezuelan gas to Central America and Asian nations.

Source: Xinhua