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Natural gas in Bolivia is one of the nation's main energy sources and export products. Bolivia's proved natural gas reserves are estimated to be 24,800,000,000,000(ft³) (1 January 2009 est.).〔http://countrystudies.us/bolivia/60.htm〕〔http://www.gazprom.com/about/production/projects/deposits/bolivia/〕 Most of these reserves are located in the eastern region of the country. The major export pipelines in Bolivia transport the gas to Argentina and Brazil. In 1994 the natural gas sector was privatized, and it was subsequently re-nationalized in 2006 by current president Evo Morales after popular protests during the 2005 Bolivian gas conflict. ==Historical background== “Bolivia’s economic history reveals a pattern of a single-commodity focus”,〔http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/botoc.html Library of Congress. Country Studies. Bolivia〕 diversification has only occasionally being the case, due to political and geographical problems. Currently, the situation is no different, and the commodity of the day is natural gas. Natural gas first became significant in Bolivia only relatively recently, after vast discoveries of fields in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the time these new discoveries aided the country on a modest economic recovery after previous years of serious economic problems (with hyperinflation, recession, and austere stabilization), their most severe since the 1950s, later aggravated by a collapse on the world’s tin market in 1985 – being tin Bolivia’s most valuable natural commodity at the time. So currently it is natural gas that has become the country’s most valuable natural commodity, substituting what was previously tin and silver. The complication though is that “finding markets to utilize this resource, both domestically and internationally, has been slowed by a lack of infrastructure and conflicts over the state’s role in controlling natural resources.”〔 Most natural gas in Bolivia is associated with oil fields. Petroleum has been known to exist in Bolivia since the colonial period, but serious exploration did not begin until the beginning of the twentieth century. It was during the 1970s that oil production really peaked, only to be followed by a decline in the next decade. That is when natural gas overshadowed petroleum to become the main hydrocarbon exported by the country up to this date.〔 Since the 1980s, the number of known reserves has increased substantially. It was during the 1990s that new major discoveries really increased natural gas production in Bolivia. “Major discoveries of natural gas since 1996 had boosted proven and probable gas reserves almost tenfold, to 48.7trn cu ft, by the end of 2004”〔http://www.eiu.com.proxy2.library.uiuc.edu/index.asp?layout=displayIssueTOC&issue_id=1307018515&publication_id=350000835Economist Intelligence Unit. Country Profile: Bolivia. Main report - April 2010〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Natural gas in Bolivia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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