Bolivia Pres. friend to run energy co.

Bolivia Pres. friend to run energy co.

	Published : Mon, 29 Jan 2007 23:18 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW YORK (AFX) - Bolivia President Evo Morales on Monday named one of his close associates as head of Bolivia's state oil and natural gas company on Monday, despite opposition claims he was unqualified.

Manuel Morales Olivera, who is not related to the president, replaces Juan Carlos Ortiz, who resigned Friday from Yacimientos Petroleos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) following disagreements with the government over how to run the company.

Hydrocarbons Minister Carlos Villegas said Morales Olivera's jobs will include finishing the state's takeover of four oil companies that were partially privatized in the 1990s.

Morales Olivera will also be charged with seeking a higher price for natural gas sales to Brazil, which is Bolivia's largest customer, and boosting gas exports to Argentina in 2010 through a planned pipeline, Villegas said.

The nationalization of Bolivia's natural gas industry was announced May 1 by President Morales, who said he would renegotiate contracts with foreign energy companies so Bolivia would get a bigger share of energy profits.

A 2005 YPFB statute stipulates that the company's president should be a professional in the field and have worked 10 years in leadership positions in important companies, half of them in the energy sector.

Morales Olivera, who formerly ran a family printing business, became chief adviser to YPFB when President Morales took office a year ago.

He resigned in December, however, after disagreements with Ortiz, a longtime oil executive who previously worked for Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras.

Opposition lawmakers have accused Morales Olivera of favoring his father, also a leading member of the ruling Movement Toward Socialism party, with a number of auditing contracts for oil fields.