Bolivia And Argentina Close Gas Deal

Bolivia and Argentina Thursday signed a new 20-year gas deal that will see Bolivia increasing the supply of its natural gas to its southern neighbor from current levels of 7.7 cubic meters a day up to 27 cubic meters a day by 2010. Bolivia’s government estimates the new deal will earn the country around $17 billion from sales to Argentina during this period. The importance of the deal for both countries was underlined by the attendance of both presidents, economy ministers and other high-ranking government officials at a signing ceremony in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. For Bolivia the contract is the first tangible evidence of a renegotiated energy deal since the government announced in May that it was nationalizing the hydrocarbons sector. For Argentina, heading towards an energy crunch, it is a guarantee of future supplies to power its thermoelectric generation plants.