Petrobras signs a modification to the gas export contract with YPFB

The Brazilian company Petrobras signed a new modification of the natural gas purchase contract with Yacimientos Bolivian Fiscal Oil Products (YPFB). The document takes into account the availability of energy that Bolivia has.

The modification signed yesterday, August 5, refers to the profile of the delivery commitments by YPFB of the volumes of gas contracted by Petrobrasdepending on the current availability of YPFB and the contracts entered into by it with other agents in the gas market, thus widely disclosed.

The modification -according to the information to which EL DEBER had access- foresees the maintenance of the maximum contracted volume of 20 MMm3/day, with flexible delivery and reception according to seasonality and availability of supply, thus ensuring a contractually balanced supply for companies. In addition, it brings greater security and predictability of gas supply to the market served by Petrobras.

So far it is unknown if prices were negotiated in addition to volumes, as was done with Argentina in April.

As will be remembered, three months ago, Petrobras had announced the initiation of legal action against the Bolivian State for breach of contract. They indicated that they had registered a decrease of the order of 30% in the amount of gas supplied by Bolivia.

A month earlier, in April, Bolivia and Argentina had agreed on new prices and an increase in the volume of gas traded between the two countries. With the new agreement, the president of YPFB, Armin Dorgathen, announced that they expected to receive an additional US$100 million from that country in a “conservative scenario.”