Bolivia
plans to renationalize three foreign-run energy firms
AFP
Rio
de Janiero
Petroleumworld.com
03 09 06
Bolivia's government plans to regain majority control over ten
formerly
state-owned companies, including three of the country's largest
oil and gas
interests, development minister Carlos Villegas said in a presentation
of the
government's economic plan.
As part of a plan to bolster the country's state oil firm, YPFB,
the
government wants 51% stakes in Andina, Chaco and Transredes, companies
whose
operations are now controlled by such oil majors as Repsol YPF,
BP and Shell,
and which control more than $2.3 billion in Bolivian assets, including
gas
reserves and several pipelines.
Villegas presented the economic plan, approved by leftist Presdient
Evo
Morales, on Sunday in La Paz. Morales has threatened to nationalize
the
country's estimated 49 trillion cubic feet in gas reserves.
The plan is designed to give under-funded state-run oil firm YPFB
operational control over more than 15% of the country's gas reserves,
according to a Bolivian energy industry source. That would make
YPFB the
third-largest holder of gas reserves in the country, after Spain's
Repsol YPF
and Brazil's Petrobras.
Andina, Chaco and Transredes are the three companies spun off
from YPFB
in 1996, when Bolivia's energy sector privatization began.
According to government news agency ABI, Villegas said the government
would either purchase the shares it seeks in the companies from
their foreign
controllers, or if that fails, would "take actions of another
kind, political
decisions, so that the Bolivian state can exercise its right to
control" the
companies. He gave no timeline for the government's plans.
Andina, which controls about 8 trillion cubic feet of gas, is
50% owned
by a Repsol YPF-led group, which exercises operational control
over the
company. Andina's reserves include stakes in the eastern Bolivian
mega-fields
of San Alberto and San Antonio.
Chaco, which is operated and 50% owned by a BP-led consortium,
controls
about 1.6 Tcf of Bolivia's natural gas. Transredes, the largest
operator of
pipelines in Bolivia, is controlled and 50% owned by Enron and
Shell.
According to their books as of September 2005, the three companies
controlled assets worth $2.33-bil.
According to local press reports citing Repsol sources in Bolivia,
the
Spanish giant is awaiting further talks with Bolivia's government
on the
plans. Repsol chairman Antonio Brufau met with Morales last week
in La Paz and
said Repsol is prepared to carry out several new investments in
Bolivian gas.
Foreign companies including Repsol, Petrobras, BP, Shell, BG,
Total,
ExxonMobil and others have invested about $4-bil to tap Bolivian
gas reserves
since the late 1990's. However, a law enacted last May that more
than doubled
tax/royalty burdens on foreign companies, and threats by the government
to
nationalize reserves, have helped bring new project investment
to a near
standstill since 2004.
The other privatized companies that Bolivia's government wants
to regain
control of are three electric utilities, two railroad companies,
a telecom and
an airline, Villegas said.
For more information, take a trial to Platts Oilgram News at
http://oilgramnews.platts.com.
Platts
03 07 06
Copyright
© 2006 Platts. All rights reserved
