La Paz, Bolivia --

The Minster of Hydrocarbons, Carlos Villegas, announced this Sunday that Bolivia will produce fertilizers and will have a petrochemical plant once the liquid separation plant be constructed in the Bolivian Chaco region.

"This is the industrialization beginning, we need to have first the liquid separation plant then it will allow to implement plants of fertilizers and petrochemical", pointed out Villegas at press conference.

Last Friday, the Bolivian Oil Fields (YPFB Spanish initials) and Argentinean oil company Enarsa launched bidding for studying the construction of liquid separation plant.

The Minister Villegas said, "The liquid separation plant of gas (ethane and methane) will be the biggest from South America".

The project is complementary to the new gas pipeline that Argentina will construct in the northeast, which will be ready in January of 2010, when Bolivia will have to pump grater volumes of gas, since 16 million daily cubic meters to 27,7 daily cubic meters, during the 20 years of contract lasting.

The Bolivian Government expects to renegotiate with Argentina to postpone for one or two year those contracts fulfillment, because it will not be possible that in 2010 Bolivia be in conditions to supply the gas-required quantities.