Energy crunch hinges on Bolivia

Facing blackouts and a looming South American winter, energy-gobbling Brazil and Argentina have an urgent message for their longtime natural gas supplier Bolivia: Step up production, and quick.

The two countries depend on their poorer neighbor for gas to power homes, businesses and cars. But Bolivia’s gas industry, stagnating after a decade of falling foreign investment, can no longer keep up with demand from the continent’s two largest economies.


Last year a frigid winter burned up Argentina’s tight gas supply, causing a shortfall that idled factories and gas-powered taxis. And as the southern hemisphere heads for winter again, experts predict the situation could be worse.

Home to South America’s second-largest natural gas reserves, Bolivia produces some 1.4 billion cubic feet of it a day — enough to feed domestic demand and a long-standing contract with Brazil, but not an ambitious 2006 export deal with Argentina.

AP