December 11, 2022, 4:33 PM
December 11, 2022, 4:33 PM
The plan to maintain Bolivia’s natural gas exports is supported by the Brazilian demand for energy, a market to which higher gas volumes are expected to be sent from 2025, reported the president of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB); Armin Dorgathen.
“The market we are targeting is the Brazilian (…). We want to increase our market share in the Brazilian market, that is the objective with which we are working at YPFB in what the gas markets mean(it is to that country) where we are pointing as a market for our natural gas, “Dorgathen revealed in an interview with state media.
“The objective is to fulfill the contract with Petrobras and if there is excess gas, sell it to private companies, which is what we did this year. We will continue to be that reliable supplier so that, starting in 2025, when we already have volumes available for the Brazilian market, we can also have better sales prices to private distributors or with Petrobras itself,” said the executive.
To sell Bolivian gas to other countries requires the construction of “quite large” infrastructure, which “is not in YPFB’s plans”added the executive, who also considered that the Brazilian market “is more stable”
However, Dorgathen did not specify whether these new exportable volumes to Brazil would come from new hydrocarbon discoveries in Bolivia or from amounts of gas that may be released after a possible conclusion of the contract with Argentina.
In April of this year, The Bolivian and Argentine governments agreed to initiate joint actions so that “before 2025” the rights and obligations of the gas purchase and sale contract between the two countries cease, which is valid until 2026.
The Bolivian president, Luis Arce, and his Argentine counterpart, Alberto Fernández, agreed on “the cessation of (contractual) rights and obligations before the 2025 administration, for which purpose they entrusted the responsible Ministries and entities to specify the corresponding documents”, cites the Joint Declaration signed on the date by both heads of State.
“In order to increase volumes and negotiate new volumes of gas, it is important that we have discoveries of new hydrocarbons”, indicated the president of YPFB Corporación.
Exploration began in June 2021 and will accelerate in 2023. “We must start working today so that in years 26, 27 and 29 we can already have results in these new exploratory areas,” he remarked.
