Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, said plans to build a $20 billion natural gas pipeline from Venezuela to Argentina are on hold because of an impasse between Brazil and Bolivia over energy prices.

A feasibility study of the 10,000 kilometer (6,215 mile) pipeline that was scheduled for delivery next month, won't be ready for at least a year, Ildo Sauer, gas unit chief of Petrobras, said in an interview at his office in Rio de Janeiro. The pipeline is a key part of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's goal of integrating Latin American energy resources.

Work stalled after Bolivian President Evo Morales seized the assets of Petrobras and other foreign oil companies May 1 and called for a doubling of gas prices, Sauer said. To cut reliance on Bolivia, the source of half of Brazil's supply and a key ally of Chavez, Petrobras is raising domestic gas output seeking imports from such countries as Nigeria.

"The technical and environmental studies advanced a great deal last year but have lost steam since the Bolivia imbroglio over the natural gas contract,'' Sauer said. ``So what we planned on concluding around now will be delayed by about a year.''

The pipeline would tap Venezuela's 151 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and supply Brazil and Argentina at first, and then run to Uruguay, Paraguay and possibly link up with existing pipelines in Bolivia, Sauer said.

Sauer said estimates have placed the cost of the project at around $20 billion and that “big international partners'' such as OAO Gazprom, the world's largest natural-gas producer, are interested in the project.

Ministers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela are slated to review the pipeline studies in a meeting in September. Carlo Ibere, a spokesman for Brazilian energy minister Silas Rondeau, said the gathering hasn't been confirmed.