Brazil and Bolivia were set to restart negotiations early next
month over the crisis surrounding the ownership of the two
countries' refineries, the Brazilian Energy Ministry said on
Tuesday.
The South American nations had agreed to resume the stalled
talks over the row over their state-owned energy companies -- YPFB
of Bolivia and Petrobras of Brazil -- on Oct. 9 in the Bolivian
capital of La Paz, the ministry said.
Brazilian Mining and Energy Minister Silas Rondeau suggested the
date for the fresh talks.
The move follows the scrapping of a meeting scheduled for
Sept.15 amid claims by the Bolivian government of control over
Petrobras's refineries in its country. The Brazilian company's oil
and gas refineries are responsible for 90 percent of Bolivia's fuel
supply.
But Petrobras Director of Finance Almir Barbassa hoped that the
replacement of former Bolivian energy chief Andres Soliz Rada would
now mean the problems surrounding the issue could be solved more
easily.
Soliz Rada, who issued a decree that the YPFB would take over
Petrobras refineries in Bolivia, resigned shortly after President
Evo Morales suspended the resolution.
Barbassa added that the fall in the international price for
natural gas would also make negotiations easier for the Brazilian
side.
Since Bolivia's nationalization of oil and gas resources in May,
Petrobras has been defying requests from the Morales government to
raise the price of natural gas provided by Bolivia to Brazil.
"Their point gets weaker now because the international price for
natural gas has become lower than the one we pay," Barbassa
said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2006)
