http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/junio/mar3/bolivia.html
Havana. June 3, 2008
Bolivia nationalizes hydrocarbon transport company
LA PAZ, June 2.-- The Bolivian government today nationalized the
TR-Holdings company, which owns 50% of the stocks of the Transporte de
Hidrocarburos Sociedad Anónima (Transredes) company, consolidating the process
begun on May 1, 2006, the ABI news agency reported.
TR-Holdings, which was controlled by the Ashmore investment group, was
nationalized via presidential decree. President Evo Morales issued the decree
at a Transredes plant in the city of Santa Cruz.
The president revealed that the transnational oil corporation had
conspired against his government, citing reports that proved the company had
maintained contacts with opposition provincial leaders.
This process, via which the state-owned Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales
Bolivianos (YPFB) now controls almost 98% of Transredes property, where the
Anglo-Dutch Shell Gas Latin America also had interests, was "transcendental,"
according to Hydrocarbons Minister Carlos Villegas.
During the implementation of the last decree, President Morales announced
that he would continue with the state recuperation of all companies privatized
in the 1990s, to fulfill the "clamorous demand of the Bolivian people."
The takeover of Transredes is one more step in the process of
nationalizing the entire hydrocarbons industry, via which the country's income
from that line increased by $300 million in 2005 to $1.93 billion last year.
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