Bolivian, Argentine presidents to meet on natural gas prices

The presidents of Bolivia and Argentina are scheduled to meet next week for negotiations over prices of Bolivian natural gas exports to its neighbor, reports from La Paz said on Thursday.

Bolivian President Evo Morales and his Argentine counterpart Nestor Kirchner will meet near the Argentine border in the southern Bolivian town of Villazon, but the exact date of the meeting was not specified, the report said.

Bolivia has been negotiating with Argentina for more than a year in a bid to raise the volume and price of its gas exports. It currently sells 6 million cubic meters of natural gas to Argentina each day at around 3.20 U.S. dollars per million British Thermal Units (mBtu).

Energy Minister Andres Solis said Bolivia would like to seek a 20-year contract to sell as much as 20 million cubic meters every day at 5.50 dollars per mBtu. But Argentina wants the price to be at around five dollars.

Talks stalled after Argentina admitted that it had resold the gas to Chile, which does not have diplomatic relations with Bolivia due to land disputes dating back to the 19th-century War of the Pacific.

Chile took control of Bolivia's only access to the sea in the war, and the two nations broke off diplomatic ties in the 1970s when Bolivia decided that Chile was not serious about giving Bolivia sea access.

Source: Xinhua