Argentina Unlikely to Get as Much Gas as Bolivia Has Promised

Bolivia may be unable to deliver on its commitment to quadruple gas supplies to Argentina by 2010, increasing the likelihood of shortages in Argentina and neighboring Chile.

Argentina’s proven reserves of natural gas have slumped 40 percent to 456 billion cubic meters, equivalent of less than 10 years of local demand, according to Gabriel Vendrell, vice president of Argentina’s Industrial Gas Consumer Association.

Consumption has increased 12.8 percent since 2001 as the Argentine economy has grown at more than 8 percent a year, Vendrell said.
Brazil, which gets half of its natural gas from Bolivia, has the rights to the first 30 million cubic meters of gas a day exported from Bolivia, using up most of the country’s current output of the furnace fuel.

“If Brazil has a bad winter and needs the full 30 million it is entitled to, then Argentine gas will get cut off,” said Tavares, who used to head the Brazilian natural gas subsidiary of Spain’s Repsol YPF SA.

Only 15 million cubic meters a day of new capacity can be added in Bolivia by the end of the decade, Tavares predicted.

“Bolivia’s production capacity is totally used up,” Gabrielli said. Petrobras won’t invest more than it needs to maintain output at its San Alberto and San Antonio gas fields, which account for about 70 percent of Bolivia’s natural gas production, Gabrielli has said previously.

Bloomberg