LatinNews Daily Report - 20 April 2012

Bolivia | Seeking to boost oil production. On 19 April, Carlos Villegas, president of the state oil company, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) announced that the government promulgated Supreme Decree 1202 which stipulates that the State will pay oil companies an additional US$30 a barrel for crude oil produced up from the current US$10.  Villegas said however that the additional amount will not be paid in cash but in credit notes (Nocres). According to the local press, the cost of producing a barrel of oil is US$5 a unit. The objective is to boost oil production – the need for which was laid bare just over a year ago with the so-called ‘gasolinazo’ – Morales’s failed attempt at the end of 2010 to scrap fuel subsidies. At the time Morales highlighted the lack of investment in the sector as one of its main problems. Crude oil production has fallen from 10,205 barrel per day (bpd)in 2006 to 3,549 bpd – the amount forecast for 2012.

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