Brazilian Energy Company to Resume Investments in Bolivia

Text of report by Brazilian news agency Agencia Brasil website

Brasilia -The president of Petrobras [Brazilian Petroleum Corporation], Jose Sergio Gabrielli, said today (7) [November] that the state-owned company will resume investing in gas production in Bolivia. The Brazilian state-owned company stopped investing in the neighbour country because of President Evo Morales’s decision to nationalize the exploitation of gas in Bolivian territory. According to Gabrielli, the situation is different now in Bolivia, and there is stability of rules.

“We are ready to analyse new opportunities for investment in Bolivia. The new opportunities are basically to increase production in Bolivia, to allow the country to achieve, in the long term, the capacity to deliver the 30 million cubic meters per day to Brazil,” Gabrielli stated, in an interview at the Planalto Palace.

Gabrielli did not specify the value of the investments, nor where they will be made. According to him, a new meeting between Brazilian and Bolivian authorities is set for the period 26 to 30 December. Also according to the president of Petrobras, increasing the capacity of the Brazil-Bolivia gas pipeline (Gasbol) to expand the supply of gas in Brazil is not under study at this time.

According to the president of Petrobras, the company is investing in the area in order to have a supply of 134 million cubic meters per day of gas in 2012, with 73 million coming from domestic production, 30 million from Bolivia, and 31 million from regasification of liquefied gas.

Originally published by Agencia Brasil website, Brasilia, in Portuguese 7 Nov 07.

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