Other Countries
The social conflicts of the last few years have paralyzed Bolivia's political life. The unpopularity of the neoliberal Washington consensus, a set of economic strategies implemented by Gonzalo de Lozada's administration, set the stage for the 2006 election of president Evo Morales, the country's first indigenous president.
In the meantime, Chile promptly started to build several coastal terminals to receive shipments of liquefied natural gas from Indonesia, Australia, or some other sources.
Other South American countries are contemplating other ways to secure gas supplies: one project aims at linking the Camisea gas reserves in Peru to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. Linking Pisco (south of Peru) to Tocopilla (north of Chile) with a 1200 km pipeline would cost $2 billion. However, experts doubt the Camisea reserves are enough for all the Southern Cone countries.
Another 8,000 km gas pipeline (Gran Gasoducto del Sur) has been proposed that would link Venezuela to Argentina via Brazil. Its cost is estimated between $8 and $12 billion.
While Argentina and Chile are large consumers of gas (50 percent and 25 percent respectively), other South American countries are a lot less dependent.
Read more about this topic: Bolivian Gas Conflict
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