<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050100583_pf.html>
Bolivian President Seizes Gas Industry Troops Deployed In Move to Block Foreign Influence
By Monte Reel and Steven Mufson Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, May 2, 2006; A01
CARACAS, Venezuela, May 1 -- Bolivian President Evo Morales seized control of the country's natural gas industry Monday, sending soldiers to occupy fields that he contends private companies have plundered for years.
Morales said that unless foreign energy firms agreed to give Bolivia's state oil company oversight of production and a majority of their revenue generated in Bolivia, the government would evict them from the fields.
"The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources," Morales said during a televised speech from a gas field near the country's southern border. "The looting by foreign companies has ended."
Morales's announcement was expected, but his deployment of troops to gas fields was a strong statement in a region where governments are moving to block outside influence, particularly from the United States, and exert more control over the energy industry. Venezuela recently voided drilling contracts with private companies at 32 oil fields, demanding new contracts that give the state oil company a 60 percent stake. Ecuador is finalizing a law that could limit excessive profits by foreign crude producers.
The developments in Bolivia were not expected to affect the U.S. energy market. Even in Bolivia, analysts played down the importance of the troop deployment, but they acknowledged the message Morales was trying to send.
"I think it was a symbolic move to send the military to the oil fields to show that Bolivians are now in charge of taking care of their own property," said Gonzalo Chavez, a political analyst with the Catholic University in La Paz, the Bolivian capital. "It's an extremely popular move. There's a lot of nationalism in the country right now, and this is something that a lot of people are going to like."
During his victorious electoral campaign last year, Morales promised that he would force energy companies to give at least 50 percent of their revenue to the government's state energy company. The plan announced Monday called for a substantially higher percentage -- 82 percent -- to be surrendered by any company producing more than 100 million cubic feet of natural gas daily. He said that all companies have six months to agree to the terms or be kicked out of the country.
Bolivia boasts South America's second-largest reserves of natural gas, behind Venezuela. The country does not play a major role in international energy markets, but its natural gas exports are important to some of its neighbors.....
-- Andy