YPFB Budgeted US$201 Million for Staff as Bolivia Imports 95% of Diesel
Bolivia · ENERGY
Key Facts
- —Payroll Fundación Jubileo puts 2025 YPFB staff spending at Bs2.4 billion (US$201 million).
- —Diesel Bolivia imports 95 percent of its diesel and 60 percent of its special gasoline.
- —Decree Supreme Decree 5683 doubled the Treasury import ceiling to Bs2 billion (US$168 million).
- —Rate The Banco Central de Bolivia sold dollars at Bs11.93 on 28 August 2026.
- —Gas First-half gas export earnings fell to US$498.1 million, down 12.9 percent on 2025.
A think tank audit of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos lands as the Treasury doubles its fuel import money.
Fundación Jubileo puts YPFB staff spending at Bs2.4 billion (US$201 million) for 2025, counting the parent company and its subsidiaries. Bolivia imports 95 percent of the diesel it burns, and the Treasury has just doubled the money that pays for it.
What the payroll figure actually counts
The number comes from Fundación Jubileo, a La Paz research foundation that published its audit of the company on 20 August. Its figure is a budget line, not an audited outturn, and that distinction matters.
The line is servicios personales, or personnel services, in the 2025 budget of the whole group. Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos is the state oil company, and the group covers eleven subsidiaries.
On that measure YPFB staff spending reached Bs2.4 billion (US$201 million) for 2025. The parent company on its own budgeted more than Bs800 million (US$67 million) for the same line.
Jubileo also puts the group’s total 2025 budget above Bs59 billion (US$4.95 billion). YPFB staff spending is therefore a small share of the whole, but a large sum for a shrinking producer.
Where the 95 percent diesel figure comes from
The same report says Bolivia imports 95 percent of the diesel it consumes and 60 percent of its special gasoline. It credits the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy for those shares.
The departmental governments of Santa Cruz and Tarija and the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance are also credited. The number is a share of consumption, not a share of the national fuel bill.
That distinction matters for anyone reading the payroll against the import bill. Diesel moves Bolivian farming, mining and freight, so the exposure runs across the whole economy.
Jubileo traces the shift to falling output rather than rising demand. The country produced enough diesel for itself when its fields were still filling, and now it does not.
The decree that doubled the import money
Supreme Decree 5683 was published in the Official Gazette on 27 August 2026. It is not a new fund, but an amendment to a decree already in force.
It rewrites the fifth additional provision of Supreme Decree 5652 of 9 July 2026. The ceiling on Treasury money for the company rises from Bs1 billion (US$84 million) to Bs2 billion (US$168 million).
The money comes from the Tesoro General de la Nación, the national treasury, as an exceptional authorisation subject to availability. It may only cover the gap between import cost and the regulated pre-terminal price.
Economy Minister Christian Morales and Hydrocarbons Minister Marcelo Blanco are charged with carrying it out. The pricing rule it points back to is Supreme Decree 5516.
How far the doubled ceiling actually goes
Analyst Fernando Rodríguez called the decree a sticking plaster and a confession that the state is short of cash. He reckons Bs2 billion buys about ten days of national fuel consumption.
Former hydrocarbons minister Álvaro Ríos said the company has been losing money since 2024. He noted that it must convert bolivianos into dollars before it can buy fuel abroad.
That conversion is the pinch point, because dollars have been scarce in Bolivia for three years. Set against it, YPFB staff spending is a fixed cost that does not shrink when output does.
The company is also clearing old bills at the same time. It owes about Bs500 million (US$42 million) to sugar mills for ethanol, payable in instalments to September.
The output collapse behind the import bill
Certified proven gas reserves fell 54 percent between 2009 and 2023, and liquid hydrocarbon reserves fell 63 percent. The 2023 certification is the most recent official one available.
Gas output has fallen 56 percent since the 2015 peak, and export volumes have fallen 74 percent. Bolivia now produces less gas than it did in 2005.
The revenue effect shows up plainly in the trade data. Gas exports earned US$498.1 million in the first half of 2026, against US$571.7 million a year earlier.
That is 12.9 percent lower year on year and 43.5 percent below the first half of 2024. Income from petroleum rent has fallen 71 percent over the period Jubileo studied.
The exchange rate behind every figure here
Every boliviano figure in this article is converted at the Banco Central de Bolivia official selling rate. That rate was Bs11.93 to the dollar on 28 August 2026.
The old hard peg is gone, and the official rate now moves from day to day. It went from Bs11.64 on 25 August to Bs11.93 on 28 August.
The central bank said on 19 August that it would buy and sell dollars to curb extreme price swings. Savers may now withdraw between US$3,001 and US$5,000 from the financial system.
A parallel market still exists, and its price is unofficial. The tracker dolarbolivia.net, which averages peer-to-peer platforms, showed Bs11.85 to sell and Bs11.90 to buy on 29 August.
That is a small discount to the official rate rather than the premium expatriates paid last year. Treat the parallel number as an indication only, because no public body publishes it.
Where the Paz government stands on subsidies
President Rodrigo Paz has refused to repeal Supreme Decree 5676, which ended diesel support for large consumers on 17 August. He said the rule can be improved but not reversed.
On 28 August he started drilling at the Junín-9D well in Santa Cruz, an investment of about US$6.4 million. He framed the choice as money for wells against money for cheap fuel.
The government has told mayors that the partial withdrawal was a condition of its International Monetary Fund programme. The Fund announced a staff-level agreement on an Extended Fund Facility on 29 July 2026.
The Rio Times reported that diesel decision on 25 August, when the company first called the price gap unsustainable. The argument has since moved from pump prices to the company’s own cost base.
What the reform proposal actually asks for
Jubileo wants the corporate structure cut to 13 units, run by managers chosen through open competition. Its hydrocarbons researcher Raúl Velásquez called the present structure a monster.
The proposal would close YPFB Petroandina, the venture formed with Venezuela‘s PDVSA, after nineteen years without result. It would also hand refining, transport and logistics units to private operators under service contracts.
Oversight would move to the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos, the national hydrocarbons agency, so the company stops policing itself. Seventeen interim executive presidents have run the firm since 2006.
None of this is government policy yet, and no minister has endorsed the plan. Whether YPFB staff spending falls will depend on decisions the Paz administration has not yet taken.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly does the Bs2.4 billion cover?
It is the 2025 budget line for personnel services across the whole group. On that basis YPFB staff spending equals about US$201 million at the official rate.
Does the new decree create a fuel supply fund?
No. Supreme Decree 5683 doubles an exceptional Treasury authorisation to Bs2 billion (US$168 million) for import price differences.
Is the boliviano still pegged to the dollar?
No. The official rate now moves daily, and the central bank intervenes only to limit extreme swings in its price.
Connected Coverage
Bolivia Fuel Subsidy: Diesel, YPFB and the Paz Jobs Question
Sources
- jubileobolivia.org.bo
- www.eldia.com.bo
- www.vision360.bo
- eju.tv
- www.vision360.bo
- www.vision360.bo
- www.bcb.gob.bo
- www.bcb.gob.bo
- dolarbolivia.net
- www.imf.org
- www.riotimesonline.com
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