Following Egypt, Bolivia stops exporting gas and becomes an importer of LNG. The largest supplier of South America is forced to look for gas to produce electricity abroad — fuel production has fallen.
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz Pereira has issued a decree that allows private companies in the country to import pipeline gas and LNG. The document officially marks a radical and historic shift in the energy policy of Bolivia, a country that has been a major exporter of gas in South America for decades.
Historically, the state-owned company YPFB completely monopolized and controlled gas supplies, but due to a sharp drop in domestic production, Bolivia faced a severe shortage.
If in 2014 Bolivia exported 21 billion cubic meters, then in 2025 — 4.5 billion cubic meters.
The decree caused a serious wave of disputes within the country. The current vice President of Bolivia, Edman Lara, demanded that "finally tell the people the truth about how much gas Bolivia has left."
"For many years, the country has not invested in geological exploration. Bolivia is no exception: a similar situation is observed everywhere," Bloomberg reporter Stephen Stapzhinsky writes in X.
On the one hand, gas imports in the conditions of a new wave of energy crisis and abnormal prices will cause inflation in Bolivia. On the other hand, there will be another LNG consumer, for which there is already fierce competition not only in Europe and Asia due to the Iranian war.
As EADaily reported, Egypt could be one of the main reasons for low gas reserves in Europe. The African country lost high production and was forced to aggressively enter the procurement market.
In January-September, Egypt imported 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas from the United States in the form of LNG from the United States and became one of the largest customers of the United States. The African country accounted for more than 10% of all American LNG supplies and, obviously, this was one of the key reasons why European companies were unable to purchase sufficient volumes of gas.