Bolivia announces discovery of new natural gas reserve

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolivian President Luis Arce announced on Saturday, January 5, the discovery of new reserves in a mega natural gas field, which will generate additional income to the treasury of more than US$260 million a year when exploited.

The discovery was made in the “Margarita-10” well, operated by the Spanish company Repsol, in the Margarita-Huacaya field, one of the country’s main natural gas reservoirs, which covers part of the southern regions of Chuquisaca and Tarija. Natural gas is one of Bolivia’s main exports.

“We started last year an exploration in the Margarita Huacaya well […], it is giving us good results, brothers, we are finding gas reserves in this well that we were exploring in our administration in the order of 300 to 350 billion cubic feet”, said the president in the Andean city of Oruro.

For its part, the Bolivian state oil company YPFB said in a communiqué that “the production of this well will generate income for the State […} of more than US$260 million/year”.

The Margarita field (in Tarija) and Huacaya (Chuquisaca) are part of one of the main gas reservoirs in Bolivia, where Repsol and other foreign companies operate under concessions from the Bolivian state, through YPFB.

“YPFB and Repsol are doing their best to make this production available to the markets in the shortest possible time,” said the president of the Bolivian company, Armin Dorgathen.

For years, hydrocarbons were Bolivia’s primary export sector, but it has been surpassed by mining (mainly gold and zinc) in recent times.

In 2021, Bolivia’s exports totaled US$10.9 billion, 59% more than the previous year. According to the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade, of this sum, US$2.3 billion correspond to hydrocarbons and US$5.9 billion to minerals.

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