World
 
|
VP insists nationalization of Bolivia's energy sector will go on as planned
AFP
BRASILIA
Petroleumworld.com 08 25 06
Bolivia insisted Thursday it would not deviate from its plan to nationalize oil and natural gas by November, and said it would speed up talks with Brazil's Petrobras over the controversial program.
"Nationalization will not take a single step backward," Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said following talks with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Speaking in Brasilia, Garcia Linera insisted the process decreed by leftist President Evo Morales on May 1 would conclude as planned on November 1.
"Six months are enough to reach good accords," he said, dismissing reports the privatizations are bogged down by red tape and lack of funds to compensate the more than 20 foreign affected foreign companies.
He also pledged to speed up negotiations with Brazil's giant Petrobras, one of the companies hit by the decree that will give Bolivia's state-run energy company a majority share in oil and gas operations.
Petrobras, the largest foreign investor in Bolivia, has objected to a steep hike in the price of natural gas it imports and to other conditions imposed by Bolivia.
Before the nationalization process got under way, Petrobras operated 14.5 percent of Bolivia's natural gas reserves, the second-largest in South America, after Venezuela.
Petrobras 25 million cubic meters of gas a day from Bolivia, which account for about half of Brazil's consumption.
Garcia Linera stressed Petrobras remained "a strategic partner."
He also lashed out at the opposition in Bolivia, which has stepped up its attacks on the nationalization process.
"This resistance by people of the old regime and people who privatized state resources in Bolivia was to be expected, it can be controlled, regulated," he said.
The battle between the opposition and the leftist government heated up on Thursday as news spread that two lawmakers had filed suit to have the nationalization decree scrapped, claiming was unconstitutional.
They filed their complaint before the Constitutional Tribunal earlier this month, but even Morales only found out on Thursday, according to his spokesman.
The leftist president already suffered a setback on Wednesday as the Senate formally censured Energy Minister Andres Soliz, the main architect of the nationalization policy.
The move forced Soliz to step down, but Morales immediately reinstated him to his position. The president called the censure motion a "shameful event" instigated by the "enemies of the homeland."
Soliz was equally tough on his critics, who blame him for an allegedly crooked deal in which authorities claim the state lost as much as 38.5 million dollars.
"Just as we are negotiating with oil companies and when the country should be more united this censure comes from the cronies of multinationals and the oligarchy," he said.
The censure motion was adopted in a session boycotted by the ruling party.
AFP 24 2321 GMT 08 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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