Petrobras plans push in Bolivia
BRAZIL'S state-controlled Petrobras is once more to consider making new energy investments in Bolivia.
The step is aimed at improving a relationship that has soured since President Evo Morales' Bolivian gas nationalisation moves in May of last year.
Petrobras chief executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli, who faces gas shortages in Brazil, was in La Paz this week for talks with top Bolivian energy officials.
His trip came before a planned visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is meeting Morales next month.
Gabrielli said that lengthy talks had taken place between the two sides in the 18 months since Bolivian troops seized Petrobras' Bolivian facilities. The talks had cleared the air, he said.
He added that various projects were being considered, and details would soon be finalised.
The Petrobras chief executive said: "We have a gas contract with Bolivia to supply us with 30 million cubic metres per day until 2019 and we want to ensure they can deliver those amounts of reserves."
He denied Bolivia had ever challenged this supply contract to Brazil.
Bolivian Hydrocarbons Minister Carlos Villegas said the meeting marked "a new phase in the relationship" between Petrobras and Bolivia's state energy company YPFB.
Since the 1996 privatisation of Bolivia's oil and gas industry, Petrobras has invested $1.5 billion in Bolivia's natural gas fields, the second largest in South America after those in Venezuela.
Brazil counts on Bolivian gas to cover about 50% of its domestic demand for the fuel.
A return of Petrobras' investment will be crucial for Bolivia, which is looking to expand production after signing a deal to beef up the gas it sells to Argentina in coming decades.
Gabrielli said he hoped that by the end of this year "we will have a conceptual project ready so we can make a decision" on the integrated gas pipeline being promoted by Venezuela which it hopes could link its gas fields with Brazil and Argentina within the next decade.
The gas route is the brainchild of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who is promoting regional integration as an alternative to US economic influence in South America.
Brazilian and Venezuelan officials have said the pipeline, with an estimated total cost of $23 billion, could be ready in 2012. However, energy and construction companies are less optimistic about that forecast.
The route would carry between 150 MMcmd and 200 MMcmd about 7000 kilometres from Venezuela across the Amazon jungle to Brazil and Argentina.