Bolivia Opens Crude Imports to Refiners in Push to Escape Fuel Subsidies

Bolivia has spent 2026 dismantling a fuel subsidy and a currency peg that drained its dollar reserves. A new decree now lets refineries import crude and sell fuel at market prices, though it is not yet in force.

Bolivia’s economy minister, Christian Morales, announced on 7 September a decree letting refineries import crude and sell fuel without subsidy. It builds on a July decree that already lets private firms import diesel and petrol, but it still waits for its rulebook.

Why It Matters Beyond Bolivia

Bolivia, a landlocked Andean country, built a decade of state-led growth on natural gas exports. Those gas revenues peaked in 2014 at nearly US$7.5 billion, according to an analysis by Cornell University’s business school.

Foreign-currency reserves stood above US$15 billion that year. By 2025, reserve assets covered only about 60% of short-term external liabilities, the same analysis found.

Much of that money went on keeping petrol and diesel cheap at the pump. In 2022 alone the fuel subsidy cost US$1.8 billion, nearly 9% of government spending, according to Cornell.

President Rodrigo Paz’s government said in December 2025 that subsidies were costing about US$10 million a day, S&P Global reported. The two decrees matter because private capital, not the drained treasury, can now pay for fuel entering the country.

For foreign traders, refiners and investors, they are the clearest test yet of whether Bolivia is opening its energy market. Dollar figures in this article use the central bank’s official rate of 12.60 bolivianos per dollar on 8 September 2026.

The New Crude Decree

Supreme Decree 5701 was announced on 7 September by Economy Minister Christian Morales. It authorises refineries to import crude oil, process it, and sell the products at market prices without subsidy.

It also sets the fuel tax on that stream at zero until 2030. Here is the part most coverage misses, because the decree enters into force only once the hydrocarbons ministry issues an implementing regulation.

That regulation is due within five working days of publication, and it had not appeared when this was written. So refineries cannot yet import crude under it, because the decree exists but the mechanism does not.

The stakes are practical, since YPFB, the state oil company, runs the country’s two main refineries. In December 2025 the Guillermo Elder Bell and Gualberto Villarroel plants ran at only about 30% of capacity, S&P Global reported.

Their combined capacity is about 64,000 barrels a day, according to the same report. Imported crude is one way to put that idle capacity back to work.

The Decree That Is Already Working

Supreme Decree 5644 came earlier, published in the official gazette on 1 July, and covers refined products rather than crude. It allows individuals and companies, public and private, to import diesel and petrol.

YPFB imports for sale at regulated prices, while private importers may import for their own use or for resale. Where private firms resell, the decree is explicit that those sales happen at market prices, with no subsidy.

Importers need authorisation from the ANH, the hydrocarbons regulator. Its rules require colour coding by fuel type and physically separate tanks.

Selling subsidised fuel at market prices costs an importer its licence. Fines are set in an inflation-indexed accounting unit used by the Bolivian state, not in bolivianos.

What This Does and Does Not Change

The subsidy has not been abolished. What exists now is a second, unsubsidised tier running alongside the cheap state supply.

Subsidised prices were set in January, with special petrol at 6.96 bolivianos (US$0.55) a litre. Subsidised diesel costs 9.80 bolivianos (US$0.78) a litre.

Large consumers pay more, with a diesel reference price of 18 bolivianos (US$1.43) since August. The regulator cut its reference price for imported diesel to 16.50 bolivianos (US$1.31) on 3 September.

One number is a trap for the unwary, because the petrol price of 6.96 bolivianos (US$0.55) matches the old exchange rate. The two figures are unrelated, and the match is a coincidence.

Whether Anyone Has Actually Imported Yet

Service stations projected selling privately imported fuel from 6 August, and a farmers’ association had already run a diesel import desk. The regulator now publishes a reference price for imported diesel, which suggests the channel is live.

The clearest case is not a private one, because the Beni regional government arranged a diesel tanker from Rondônia in Brazil. That delivery was due on 9 September, and it is a government purchase rather than a company import under the new rules.

We could not confirm that a private firm has completed an import. We are therefore not asserting that one has.

The Exchange Rate Changed Too

Bolivia held its official rate at 6.96 bolivianos to the dollar from 2011, and that peg is gone. A flexible official rate took effect on 29 June 2026 at 9.73, and the central bank now publishes it daily.

It was 12.58 on 7 September and 12.60 on 8 September, a slide of about 29% in ten weeks. The parallel rate has essentially converged with the official one, and at times trades slightly below it.

That convergence is the strongest evidence the change worked, because a gap between the two was the symptom being treated. Beware stale pages claiming a fixed rate of 12.60 since 2011, because the 2011 peg was 6.96.

Why Bolivia Is in This Position

Gas exports have fallen for a decade with no major new discoveries, turning Bolivia from energy exporter into net fuel importer. It kept selling diesel and petrol below import cost, and paid the difference in dollars.

That drained reserves and produced a chronic hard-currency shortage, long queues and heavy smuggling to neighbouring countries. Fuel sells for far more across the borders, which makes the arbitrage obvious and enforcement hard.

President Rodrigo Paz took office on 8 November 2025 and has taken the old settlement apart in pieces. A January decree raised regulated prices, and another declared an energy and social emergency.

The State of Exception, and Who Wants It Extended

A 90-day state of exception, a form of emergency rule, was declared on 20 June after about seven weeks of road blockades. It bans blockades and the use of weapons and explosives, and lets the military help police reopen strategic routes.

It expires on 18 September, and reports that Paz is seeking an extension do not match what he has said. He ruled one out on 12 August, and his spokesman repeated in late August that it was not an immediate priority.

The six-month extension bill comes from a governing-party deputy, not from the presidency. Two ministers have since opened the door to keeping it, and any extension needs approval from the legislature.

Coca, and the New Drug Policy

The United Nations drugs office reported on 8 September that coca cultivation reached 36,400 hectares in 2025. That is up 7% from 34,000 hectares in 2024, and 14,400 hectares above the legal limit of 22,000.

Growth was concentrated in the Cochabamba tropics, up 22%, while eradication fell from about 10,000 hectares to 2,732. The government presented a new anti-drug policy the same day, running from 2026 to 2030.

It has nine pillars and a budget of US$492 million over five years. The government expects 56.3% of that money to come from international cooperation.

What It Means If You Trade or Invest in Bolivia

Fuel traders and refiners can already sell imported diesel and petrol at market prices under the July decree. Crude importers must wait for the ministry’s regulation before signing anything that relies on the new decree.

Anyone pricing Bolivian deals should use the daily official rate, not the old 6.96 peg. Consumers keep subsidised prices at state pumps for now, so the cheap tier has not disappeared.

What Is Not Yet Known

The text of the implementing regulation for the crude decree has not been published. It is not known which refineries, state or private, will use the new channel first.

No private import under the July decree has been independently confirmed. The government has not said when, or whether, the subsidised tier itself will end.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: Agencia Boliviana de Información, the new crude import decree, Agencia Boliviana de Información, the July fuel import decree, El Deber, the refinery decree, El Deber, the regulator’s rules for private importers, El Deber, the imported diesel reference price, Banco Central de Bolivia, the official exchange rate, Correo del Sur, the state of exception decree, La Razón, the coca cultivation figures, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Bolivia’s gas boom, reserves and subsidy cost, S&P Global, subsidy cost and YPFB refinery capacity