Bolivian
police raid Repsol offices in oil smuggling probe
AFP
LA
PAZ
Petroleumworld.com
03 10 06
Police raided the offices of Repsol-YPF's subsidiary in Bolivia
on Thursday in connection with an investigation into alleged oil
smuggling, an official of the Spanish company said.
Police broke into the firm's offices in Santa Cruz to confiscate
information related to their probe, although no executives were
arrested, Miguel Cirbian, manager of foreign acquisitions for
the subsidiary, Andina, told AFP.
Cirbian described the raid as an "illegal".
The police move came shortly after Repsol-YPF had announced that
a Santa Cruz court had suspended the investigation ordered by
local customs authorities.
The company, which has operated in Bolivia since 1997, is accused
of smuggling 230,400 barrels of oil worth 9.4 million dollars.
The Spanish firm controls 26 percent of the country's gas reserves,
the largest in South America outside of Venezuela.
Cirbian denied reports than Andina president Julio Gavito and
another company executive, Pedro Sanchez, were arrested.
In Spain, a spokesman for Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel
Moratinos said he had Thursday called the Spanish embassy in the
South American country for clarification.
"They have not been arrested, but the situation is still
unclear," a ministry spokesman told AFP.
Bolivia's newly elected President Evo Morales helped topple two
of his predecessors with street demonstrations largely over the
exploitation of Bolivia's natural gas reserves.
Repsol-YPF said last week it would abide by a new Bolivian law
forcing oil producers to give a 50 percent share to the government
and that it would cooperate with the investigation into alleged
smuggling.
"We believe we have acted correctly," chief executive
Antoni Brufau said after meeting Morales last Friday.
AFP
03 09 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved.
Send
this story to a friend
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write
to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels
| 
