Bolivia awaits confirmation from Peru on the infrastructure to start importing diesel through the port of Ilo, starting in October.
The Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, Benjamín Blanco, recalled that Peru committed “all its good offices to have all this infrastructure as soon as possible” in addition to “the investments that are necessary to be able to handle the fuel.”
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“We are ready to import from October, however, we are still working with Enapu to see the tanks, if they are going to be available and the equipment that is required,” Blanco said in statements to the press.
Bolivia’s decision to import 50 million liters of diesel each month through the Peruvian port of Ilo, was communicated by Blanco after the meeting he held with his Peruvian counterpart Miguel Julián Palomino De la Gala and personnel from the Bolivian Port Services Administration. (ASP-B) and the National Ports Company (Enapu S.A.), in La Paz, on September 13.
On that occasion, Blanco specified that this operation will be carried out on a monthly basis and that Enapu undertook to face a set of investments, starting in 2023, to attend in optimal conditions “the liquid fuels that are going to come destined” to Bolivia.
The Peruvian company will invest around US$60 million from 2023 to expand the warehouses and refurbishment of the Ilo port, which will be added to the US$10 million that have already been carried out in various works at the terminal.
Bolivia currently imports diesel through the Chilean ports of Mejillones and Arica via Pisiga and Tambo Quemado, respectively, and to a lesser extent through Peru.
It also carries out these operations through the following routes: from the Paraguayan border it passes to Villa Montes, from Argentina the fuel takes the route through Yacuiba, Bermejo and Villazón and from Brazil through Puerto Quijarro, via the Tamengo channel.
The objective of promoting the Peruvian port of Ilo was born from the presidents Luis Arce Catacora and Pedro Castillo within the framework of the tasks of the binational cabinet, which began operating in 2015 and continues to date.
In the last bilateral meeting, in October 2021, in La Paz, Arce and Castillo agreed on a joint effort that prioritizes the investments that are missing to “strengthen the south of Peru” and “give Bolivia a real alternative in its foreign trade.”