Bolivia can sell natural gas to US for the next 20 years

Bolivia wants to export 10 tcf of LNG to the United States during the next 20 years, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada said during a state visit to Mexico's capital. The income from the fuel can help his country build economic alternatives for farmers who cultivate coca and will also go a long way toward stabilizing a nation torn by civil unrest, Sanchez de Lozada told a small group of foreign correspondents.
"The only thing which will really stop coca production are permanent jobs," Sanchez de Lozada said. "We have to take advantage of this immense richness in our country: our vast gas deposits."

During a four-day visit to Mexico which is scheduled to end, Sanchez de Lozada met with executives from the San Diego, California-based company Sempra Energy. The company is planning to build a LNG import terminal in the western Mexican state of Baja California to bring fuel to the South-western United States. Analysts say US demand for natural gas could rise as much 60 % over the next 10 years.
Sanchez de Lozada also met with Mexican President Vicente Fox to discuss exporting some 5 tcf of gas to Mexico in the next 20 years. Mexico has vast natural gas reserves in the north-eastern Burgos Basin region. Because of years of under-investment by state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, however, the country has failed to exploit the wells fast enough to keep up with rising demand.

Sale of Bolivia's gas to the United States is opposed by left-wing groups in the country, including indigenous leader Evo Marales, head of the coca farmers movement. But Sanchez de Lozeda countered that the opposition's stance lacked support and credibility.
"These groups don't believe in democracy and they don't believe in globalisation," he said. "They say they want to keep the gas. (But) they are just looking for issues to mobilize people."

In February, 22 people were killed as anti-government protesters set fire to buildings and clashed with soldiers in the Bolivian capital of La Paz. Opposition groups arealso against the government's policy of eradicating coca crops used to produce cocaine, which provide an income for many farmers, particularly in the Chapare region of central Bolivia.
Sanchez de Lozeda said he wants to use the profits from gas exports to build alternative types of industry in the Chapare region and to fund a national plan offering free school dinners. Bolivia's president also said he wants to review the size of the nation's limited legal coca market, which is now restricted to some 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares) to supply indigenous people who chew the leaves.

Any extension of the legal coca-growing area is opposed by the US government, which fears doing so would undermine efforts to stop cocaine production in Bolivia.
"We are caught between two sides: the coca growers and the United States," he said. "(But) We have to confront the problem now. We don't want to go down the same road as Colombia."