Bolivian Government-owned oil and gas company YPFB is making efforts to revitalise the nation’s energy sector by improving investment conditions and seeking assistance from Russia to address the country’s fuel shortages, reported Reuters, citing YPFB president Armin Dorgathen.
Bolivia’s economic crisis, exacerbated by declining oil and gas production, has led to depleted hard-currency reserves and heightened political tension.
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YPFB is actively working to attract financing and partners to bolster the country’s declining oil and gas output.
Dorgathen acknowledged that past political decisions had deterred investors, resulting in reduced production levels.
His statement comes after a failed military coup against Bolivia’s Government last month.
The landlocked South American nation’s gas production has significantly decreased from its peak a decade ago and oil output is at its lowest since the 1990s.
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By GlobalData“We are working to attract financing from various sides and also looking for partners,” stated Dorgathen.
He added that payment issues, legislation and regulation under the largely socialist leadership had created a challenging environment for private companies.
YPFB is now aiming to amend these conditions to encourage additional investments from existing partners in Bolivia, including Repsol, TotalEnergies and Petrobras.
The decline in domestic oil and gas production has been central to Bolivia’s economic and political challenges.
The country, once a key gas exporter, has seen a drastic fall in export revenue, leading to nearly depleted central-bank reserves.
Dorgathen emphasised the immediate concern of gasoline shortages, revealing that Bolivia imports half of its gasoline, costing around $800m ($b5.52bn) annually.
To mitigate this, Bolivia is shifting towards direct purchases from OPEC producers through its new Botrading state energy trading company.
“Our objective through OPEC is to access cheaper fuel and improve supplies,” he explained.
Furthermore, the government is reaching out to Russia, a member of the OPEC+ coalition, to alleviate fuel supply issues.
Despite sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Russian company Lukoil supplied YPFB with 366,000 barrels of diesel in June.
While Dorgathen noted the decline in gas production was due to insufficient exploration investment, he maintained that export income was stable and denied any domestic gas supply problems, expressing optimism for a significant new discovery later in the year.
“There is no internal supply problem,” added Dorgathen. “We still produce almost three times more gas than we consume.”
