Brazilian integrated energy major Petrobras has said that, contrary to press speculation over non-fulfillment of terms, it is in compliance with the natural gas purchase and sale agreement with Bolivian gas producer YPFB and has not received any formal complaint from the Bolivian company.
According to the company, the Petrobras-YPFB agreement sets the obligation of paying for an average volume of no less than 19.25 million cubic meters (MCM) per month in a take-or-pay arrangement, and for an average volume of no less than 25.06MCM annually.
Petrobras claims to have been importing an average monthly volume of over 19.25MCM per day since 2005.
The Brazilian company has said that it expects to consume larger volumes of Bolivian natural gas as of the next few weeks on account of the beginning of the dry season in Brazil, a period in which power generation is stepped-up at the natural-gas-fuelled thermoelectric plants which go online to complement hydroelectric plant generation.
This trend is expected to increase Petrobras’s imports of Bolivian gas to levels that are likely to surpass 24MCM per day during the course of 2009, said the company.
