Bolivian President Evo Morales signed a decree Monday on nationalizing the country's natural gas and petrol deposits and sent the army to enforce compliance, reports reaching here said.

At a signing ceremony in Yacuiba in the southern department of Tarija, which has 85 percent of Bolivia's natural gas, Morales said the government "keeps its electoral promises... and from this moment, the looting of our natural resources by foreign companies will end."

Foreign firms working in Bolivia had 180 days to sign new contracts on handing over control to the state, he added.

"We want... the armed forces... starting now... to occupy the country's energy fields with battalions of engineers," Morales said.

The move was a surprise because the government had said in recent days that Bolivia was still in the process of preparing the decree.

Vice President Alvaro Garcia said the military and officials from state energy company Yacimentos Petroliferos Bolivianos (YPFB) had begun occupying gas fields, pipelines and refineries as soon as Morales signed the document.

YPFB will control the fields and pay foreign companies for their services. Some operators will get about 50 percent of the value of gas they extract, but two largest gas fields insist on giving their operators only 18 percent of the revenue of gas extracted there.

Bolivia has some 48.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which is being exploited by some 20 foreign firms, including Brazil's Petrobras, Britain's BG Group PLC, France's Total, and Spanish-Argentine Repsol-YPF.

The country is also asking Argentina and Brazil, to whom it supplies natural gas, to pay higher prices.

Source: Xinhua