Page Seven / La Paz
Until January 31, Bolivia and Argentina must negotiate the new addendum to the natural gas purchase-sale contract, but analysts warn that the country will not be able to export larger volumes due to the decrease in production in recent years.
According to data from the Bolivian Fiscal Petroleum Deposits (YPFB), last year in January the volume sent to the neighboring country was 15.88 million cubic meters per day (MMmcd), but in December it closed with 9.01 MMmcd.
Exports began to decline from August with 12.39 MMmcd and September with 9.84 MMmcd.
The signing of the sixth addendum to the natural gas purchase-sale contract with Argentina, which was to enter into force on January 1 with new conditions, was postponed for one month until January 31, 2022. In the current addendum (5th) the agreed volumes were 14 MMmcd for winter and 8 MMmcd in summer.
According to the public records of the National Gas Regulatory Entity (Enargas) of Argentina, which controls injections into the networks, since last October 22 the volumes sent by Bolivia were below 9 MMmcd and even on days like On October 23, only 5.7 million cubic meters were dispatched and 6.8 on October 27.
YPFB explained that the drop was due to an operational failure in one of the wells in the Margarita field, specifically in the MGR-X3ST.
Analyst Hugo del Granado explained that the normal thing would be to negotiate based on the country’s capacity, because there is no new gas production or fields, but what Argentina says must be evaluated.
Analyst Ávaro Ríos explained that Argentina needs Bolivian gas in the north and in winter in particular.
He indicated that there is a partial recovery of the X3 well in Margarita with 1 MMmcd and that efforts are being made to start up the Boicobo well and the Margarita X-10 development well until August. “The negotiation of the new addendum will be associated with the recovery of 1 MMmcd from Margarita X-3 and two MMmcd that can be reached from Boicobo and Margarita X-10. That is the reason why YPFB requested an additional month and wants to be sure of how much it has to negotiate”, he underlined.
In any case, they are lower volumes than shipments before due to lower production.
