La Paz, Bolivia
Letter from South America: Bolivia's shrinking gas role
Declining production and cheaper LNG threaten the country’s role as gas supplier to its neighbours
Bolivia is a land of contrasts. The country encompasses dense Amazon rainforest, fertile plains, soaring Andes mountains and the second-highest altiplano in the world behind the Tibetan plateau. And yet the country is landlocked, with no access to the Pacific Ocean since the end of the Saltpeter War in 1884. It has struggled with a long history of pendulum swings between military dictatorships and socialist elected governments. The administrative capital of La Paz looks and feels very much like a city built in a crater on Mars, both in terms of aesthetics and lack of oxygen. Doing business in the country, especially in the energy sector, can sometimes feel like doing business on Mars as well
Also in this section
21 August 2025
The administration has once more reduced its short-term gas price forecasts, but the expectation remains the market will tighten over the coming year, on the back of
19 August 2025
ExxonMobil’s MOU with SOCAR, unveiled in Washington alongside the peace agreement with Armenia, highlights how the Karabakh net-zero zone is part of a wider strategic realignment
19 August 2025
OPEC and the IEA have very different views on where the oil market is headed, leaving analysts wondering which way to jump
15 August 2025
US secondary sanctions are forcing a rapid reassessment of crude buying patterns in Asia, and the implications could reshape pricing, freight and supply balances worldwide. With India holding the key to two-thirds of Russian seaborne exports, the stakes could not be higher
