Bolivia's energy minister kept on amid export drop

Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:08pm EDT
LA PAZ, June 26 (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales confirmed his energy minister in office on Thursday, after the opposition-controlled Senate censured the official over a drop in natural gas exports to Argentina.
A leftist who nationalized the country's energy industry in 2006, Morales accused senators of rejecting his energy reforms rather than the tenure of Energy Minister Carlos Villegas.
"We've said any minister who is not censured by the (political) right will have to leave the cabinet. Comrade Villegas, who has been censured, will stay on forever," Morales said in a televised speech.
Morales is locked in a power struggle with his rightist opponents, who want greater autonomy for Bolivia's provinces and oppose a constitutional overhaul that would boost state control of the economy.
Morales has ratified all his cabinet ministers censured by the Senate in the last two years.
According to ABI state news agency, Villegas told lawmakers the supply cut to Argentina, to about 2 million cubic meters per day, was due to investment delays by foreign energy companies and the need to prioritize the domestic market and Brazil, the country's top client.
Brazil gets about 32 million cubic meters of natural gas a day from Bolivia, and the contract takes priority over No. 2 customer Argentina, which has a maximum contract level of 7.7 million cubic meters per day.
Bolivia has said it will not be able to meet its maximum export commitments to neighbors Argentina and Brazil until 2009.
Villegas said this week that Bolivia and Argentina were negotiating to change the volumes in their natural gas supply contract. This would also delay the goal of boosting gas exports to Argentina to 27.7 million cubic meters by 2010. (Reporting by Carlos Quiroga; Writing by Helen Popper and Hilary Burke; Editing by Marguerita Choy)