Bolivia's gas dream

The country needs to boost its reserves and cashflow to realise its energy ambitions

Bolivia's president Evo Morales has grand plans to turn his landlocked nation into an energy hub for Latin America. The pipelines that already ferry natural gas thousands of kilometres south to Brazil and Argentina are vital to keeping La Paz's coffers full. Morales wants to expand those exports and break into new markets. He has pushed talks with Lima to build a new gas link to carry Bolivian gas to a proposed new industrial base in nearby southern Peru. Trucks now take Bolivian gas into the tiny Paraguayan market, but a preliminary deal for a new pipeline has been signed. Some in Morales' administration have even broached the idea of selling gas to Chile. It's a commercially sound idea tha