31-03-03 The Bolivian government appeared to tip its hand toward Chile as a maritime outlet for Bolivian gas when President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada said that option was the "viable" one, despite long-standing differences between the countries.
"We would have preferred Peru for obvious reasons," Sanchez de Lozada told.
A broad swath of the Bolivian public opposes selling the gas via Chile, which in the 1879 War of the Pacific took Bolivia's only outlet to the sea. The president justified his position by noting that the gas was in the province of Tarija, in the Bolivian Chaco, and "it's easier to cross to Chile, although no decision has yet been made."

The LNG project came about in 2001 after an enormous quantity of natural gas was found in the southern part of the country, which currently has 52.3 tcf of gas reserves.
Due to high energy demand in California and north-eastern Mexico, the Pacific LNG consortium, which discovered the reserves, began immediate negotiations with US energy companySempra to ensure a market for the product, although it still has not signed an agreement with the firm.

Bolivian authorities, meanwhile, opened talks with Chile and Peru, the two countries offering port terminals on the Pacific Ocean for exporting LNG to North America. Although Pacific LNG, which includes Spain's Repsol-YPF, BP and British Gas, has leaned toward the Chilean port of Patillos, the Bolivian government said that, until the consortium signed an agreement, it would not pick a route to the sea.
"Before making the decision, we're going to have a big talk," Sanchez de Lozada said. "We're going to present the project and the reasons we need it, and the people will decide and see what's best for their interests."