Bolivia to pay Shell for share in nationalized gas company
Bolivia and Shell have signed a deal compensating the Anglo-Dutch energy group for its share in the nationalized gas pipeline company Transredes.
By Agencies |
LA PAZ: Bolivia and Shell have signed a deal compensating the Anglo-Dutch energy group for its share in the nationalized gas pipeline company Transredes.
The accord was signed late Friday by Bolivian Energy Minister Carlos Villegas and Shell representative Jose Maria Linardi in the presence of President Evo Morales, an AFP photographer at the ceremony said.
The amount of the deal for Shell's stake in Transredes, which was nationalized by Morales last year, was not divulged by officials.
Reports on Saturday, however, put the sum at 120.57 million dollars.
The accord lifts the share held by Bolivia's state-owned YPBF energy company in Transredes and gives the government a 98-percent stake, officials said. The other two percent is held by private partners.
"YPBF has become owner of Shell's share in Transredes at a price established by the national government," Villegas said.
The deal did not include another stake-holder in Transredes, US company Ashmore Energy International, which was demanding a 500-million-dollar pay-out from Bolivia in a case before the Arbitration Institute of Stockholm's Chamber of Commerce.
Shell and Ashmore together owned 50 percent of Transredes through a joint company, TR Holding, before it was nationalized.
Bolivia has the second-biggest gas fields in Latin America, after Venezuela, and the nationalization of the sector is one of the central policies of Morales's leftwing reforms.
The accord was signed late Friday by Bolivian Energy Minister Carlos Villegas and Shell representative Jose Maria Linardi in the presence of President Evo Morales, an AFP photographer at the ceremony said.
The amount of the deal for Shell's stake in Transredes, which was nationalized by Morales last year, was not divulged by officials.
Reports on Saturday, however, put the sum at 120.57 million dollars.
The accord lifts the share held by Bolivia's state-owned YPBF energy company in Transredes and gives the government a 98-percent stake, officials said. The other two percent is held by private partners.
"YPBF has become owner of Shell's share in Transredes at a price established by the national government," Villegas said.
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The deal did not include another stake-holder in Transredes, US company Ashmore Energy International, which was demanding a 500-million-dollar pay-out from Bolivia in a case before the Arbitration Institute of Stockholm's Chamber of Commerce.
Shell and Ashmore together owned 50 percent of Transredes through a joint company, TR Holding, before it was nationalized.
Bolivia has the second-biggest gas fields in Latin America, after Venezuela, and the nationalization of the sector is one of the central policies of Morales's leftwing reforms.
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