On February 20-22, 2007, led by Stanislav Tsygankov, Head of the Foreign Economic Relations Department, a Gazprom delegation has paid a working visit to Bolivia.

In the course of the visit the delegation met Manuel Morales, President of the Bolivian state-owned petrol company YFPB. The meeting resulted in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Gazprom and YFPB.

The MoU stipulates promoting cooperation in the Bolivian hydrocarbon exploration and development sector and studying the possibilities of jointly getting involved in infrastructure projects including LNG developments and upgrading the qualification of and training oil and gas sector professionals.

The Bolivian side also showed interest in Gazprom’s proposal to develop a General Scheme for the gas sector development that would enable to plan further measures aimed at increasing production and transmission capacities in the midterm perspective.

Reference:

Bolivia is the 3rd-largest country in Latin America after Venezuela and Trinidad & Tobago in terms of natural gas reserves (2 tcm) that are characterized by a high gas-bearing potential.

Bolivia’s major gas reserves are located in the four large fields, namely Margarita, San Alberto, Sabalo and Itau, discovered in southeastern Bolivia, near the border with Argentina, in the Tarija oil-and-gas-bearing province.

Bolivia is the main supplier of natural gas to Brazil and Argentina.

The interests of the state in the oil and gas sector are represented by YPFB that discharges the fiscal functions and has by law the exclusive right to participate on behalf of the state in oil and gas projects and sell hydrocarbons inside and outside the country.