08-05-00 UK's Shell Gas and Power is considering expanding its presence in Bolivia, said officials. Currently, the company participates with the United States' Enron Corporation in 50 % ownership of Transredes, a local natural gas transportation company responsible for the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline.
"One of the reasons we came to the energy summit is that we're interested in playing a (bigger) part in Bolivia," Ken Marnoch, Latin America Business Development Manager for Shell Gas and Power, a division of Shell International Gas, told. Currently, Shell's only presence in Bolivia is through Transredes, Marnoch explained.
But the company is interested in pursuing other activities like exploration, he said. "And we're looking at potential partners we'd like to ally ourselves with," Marnoch said. Four other Shell executives from Brazil and Argentina also attended the summit.
"Although my responsibilities are mainly Argentina, I'm also looking at the whole southern cone," said Marnoch. "We've got some good market positions in Brazil but would certainly like to expand here," he said. " We're just missing something in Bolivia."

Bolivia has rapidly caught the attention of companies around the world because of its expanding natural gas reserves. The latest certification pegged the country's reserves at 32 tcf, according to government data. "There's usually a very clear move to stop competition once you've got the reserves and you've got the interest," Marnoch said.
"After that, it's all about working together in order to develop those reserves for market," he said. "I've talked to a few of the company executives (at the summit) and I know how well they've worked together on previous projects," Marnoch said.
"I think everybody's got the same question on their mind which is about open access," Marnoch said. "The current situation is that in order to have access to the (Bolivia-Brazil) pipeline, you've got to sell the gas to Brazil's Petrobras and let (it) sell it off," Marnoch said.
An open-accesssystem would allow anyone who wants to have capacity in the pipeline to pay for it, Marnoch explained. "For example, Shell (gas) molecules would go in this end and Shell molecules would go out the other end and it would become Petrobras (molecules) in the middle," he said.
"(Petrobras) would only get a cut of it." "That's what everyone is asking for at the moment," said Marnoch. " There's only a very small amount of gas other than Petrobras' that can go through the system right now."
"Everybody's also talking about a second pipeline (to Brazil) but is that second pipeline because they know they're going to have to struggle to get open access with the first pipeline?" Marnoch asked. "In other words, is it just because they want to bypass Petrobras?"

Petrobras has a significant presence in Bolivia, participating in natural gas production, the operation of oil refineries and gas transportation. Some executives at the summit expressed some concern about its dominance of the Bolivian energy sector.
"Petrobras is in a position were they could potentially carve up the market," said Marnoch. "And I think everyone would like to see the market more open," said Marnoch.
The issue of open-access and the concerns over Petrobras' dominance in Bolivia should have been presented to government officials as a single, unified voice, said Marnoch. "I really think everyone's got the same message," he said.
"It just would've been nice if (Bolivia's) Chamber of Hydrocarbons had presented this message to the government," he said. "I hope (the government) can create a situation in Bolivia where we can do what we do best -- which is compete and provide a great service to everybody," Marnoch said.