Brazil's state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras on Friday announced that protesters did not interrupt the company's natural gas production in Bolivia.

According to Bolivia's national oil and gas company YPFB, the protests in the southern Gran Chaco province damaged part of the pipeline system, which transports natural gas from Bolivia to Brazil, causing a reduction of 20 percent in product supply to the Brazilian and Argentine markets.

However, Petrobras said the volume of natural gas imports from Bolivia remains at a regular level.

YPFB also said the production in the San Alberto field dropped from 10 million cubic meters of natural gas per day to 3.4 million cubic meters.

Gas pumping stations were invaded by protesters, who were fighting for a share in the revenues obtained from the exploitation of the fields. This week, the movement threatened to interrupt production in Gran Chaco, from which most of the 26 million cubic meters of natural gas was imported by Brazil every day.

Bolivian Vice President Ivaro Garcia Linera warned on Friday that there is a huge risk of tragedy due to the vandalism in the plant.

Brazil's Minister of Mining and Energy Silas Rondeau said earlier on Friday that the Bolivian government requested the resumption of the negotiations on the nationalization of Petrobras refineries.

On Tuesday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales met to discuss the possibility of a confiscation of the refineries.

However, Rondeau said his country would not stop importing natural gas from other countries, such as Qatar, Algeria, Nigeria and Trinidad and Tobago.

Source: Xinhua