The president of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, this Thursday installed Sebastián Daroca as the new interim president of Yacimientos Petrolófilos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB)third head of the state company so far in his administration.
The appointment occurs at a time of tension for the Government after the resignation of the former president of YPFB, the dismissal of the Minister of Hydrocarbons and the lack of solutions to the conflict over fuel quality that has worsened in recent days due to reports of shortages of diesel and gasoline, which has caused lines to arise at some service stations in the country.
In that context, Daroca—which until yesterday was company operations manager— committed to guarantee the supply and quality of fuels; in addition to maintaining its priceafter the December adjustment when the fuel subsidy was lifted.
“President, I must inform you that we have already taken actions to supply the excess demand for diesel generated by various factors in different productive places in the country“, Daroca said in his possession.
Bolivia went, in the space of ten years, from being an exporter of natural gas to depending almost entirely on fuel imports. The country It imports more than 90% of diesel and more than 50% of the gasoline it needs to supply its domestic marketwhich causes irregularities in supply in a context of economic crisis.
Additionally, In recent months, complaints have emerged about poor fuel quality that the Government admitted and attributed to several factors. ranging from contamination of storage tanks to international criminal networks that replace part of the product with water and oil.
“My priority will be to completely solve the problem of destabilized gasoline, guarantee the quality of the fuel, ensure the supply of fuel and accelerate the payment of compensation to those affected.“, Daroca stated in a speech read. In his last point he refers to the economic insurance that the Government activated to compensate for damage to vehicles affected by contaminated gasoline.
Daroca took office after the resignation of Claudia Cronenbold—the former Petrobras executive who had taken office twenty days earlier—alleging that The company’s situation was “significantly more deteriorated” than expected and that the technical times required for its restructuring are longer than those demanded by politics.
During the inauguration of his successor, which took place around 11 p.m. on Thursday, Paz thanked Daroca for the “courage” of assuming management of the company and tasked him with “fighting corruption.” that day after day does nothing but attack the pockets of Bolivians.”
The energy sector is the most unstable in the Paz administration. The change in the management of YPFB is the third in the five months of Government, and is added to the recent dismissal of the former Minister of Hydrocarbons, Mauricio Medinaceli, who was replaced on Wednesday by Marcelo Blanco. Additionally, in the National Hydrocarbons Agency, there were two heads from the beginning of the mandate.
These changes, between resignations and dismissals, occur in the midst of Questions about State policy on the hydrocarbon sector and the operational capacity of the largest company state of the country.
