Eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12 -- Bolivia said a natural gas pipeline was blown up in a "terrorist attack" carried out on Sept. 11 by antigovernment protesters, causing a reported 10% cut in the export of natural gas to Argentina and Brazil.
The disruption came after demonstrators blocked two valves on the pipeline system linking two of the country's largest natural gas fields to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. One of the valves sustained a gas leak that caught on fire.
Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao late on Sept. 11 said the fire had been extinguished, and repair crews were waiting for the pipeline to cool. Lobao said damage to the pipeline should be repaired and the situation normalized in "two or three days."
Meanwhile, Bolivian natural gas exports to Brazil were reduced by 3 million cu m/day, or about 10%. Brazil imports slightly more than 30 million cu m/day of gas from Bolivia.
However, a report in Brazil's financial newspaper Gazeta Mercantil said the reduction to the country's gas supply was substantially greater as some 31 million cu m/day of Bolivian exports were halved by the attack.
Following the attack, President Evo Morales' government ordered additional troops to his country's rebellious eastern provinces to secure gas and oil installations seized by demonstrators.
The unrest is said to represent a worsening of a political conflict between Morales and governors in five of the country's nine states who are opposing Morales's bid to reform the country along socialist lines.
The governors also have made moves towards autonomy, something Morales has called illegal. Two weeks ago, he ordered troops to guard gas facilities and government offices in their eastern lowland territories.
In his speech, Morales accused US ambassador Philip Goldberg of aiding his opponents. Last month, Bolivia's foreign ministry protested a high-profile meeting between Goldberg and Morales' chief opponent Ruben Costas, governor of Santa Cruz state.
Underlining its suspicions of Washington, the Bolivian government also said that the head of the Santa Cruz employers' federation, Costas's ally Branko Marinkovic, had just returned from a visit to the US.
As a result of his suspicions, Morales ordered Goldberg to be expelled, accusing him of contributing to divisions in the country which the government warned was headed towards "civil war."
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].