Bolivian President Evo Morales Thursday announced that Brazil's state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras has agreed to transfer two Bolivian refineries to his government for a price of 112 million dollars.

The agreement came after Morales issued a decree on May 6 enforcing the nationalization of all oil and gas exports, as part of his promises to take greater control of the nation's natural resources when he ran for presidency.

Petrobras' refineries are two of the six largest in the country.

Morales said the nationalization of the two refineries will contribute to the nation's industrialization in the future. He added that as a responsible government, Bolivia will handle the issues of nationalization through negotiation instead of plundering foreign investment assets.

The Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras will sell its two refineries in Bolivia's Cochabama and Santa Cruz provinces. The company has valued the assets at about 200 million dollars, almost double the 104 million dollars it paid to the government in 1994 for the right to operate them.

Previously Petrobras's CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, along with Brazil's ministries of Mining and Energy and of Foreign Relations, reacted to the decree by saying that it meant the expropriation of the plants' cash flow.

However, as the Bolivian government removed Petrobras' right to export petroleum on Monday, the company has been prompted to say that it had no interest in keeping a stake in the refineries.

The units refine all of Bolivia's gasoline, aviation fuel, cooking gas and most of the nation's diesel fuel.

Source: Xinhua