In Bolivia, the state-owned oil refiner State Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) has recently announced that it will invest US$49 million dollars over the next five years in ethanol storage and blending capacity.
In a briefing to local media, State Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) President Oscar Barriga, informed that the state-owned the oil company sells at present five million liters of gasoline, of which over 70 percent is produced by the entity.
Barriga was commenting the government’s biofuels programme ‘Bolivia in the era of biofuels’ launched in March, to the business community of Santa Cruz. The official told the local media that to develop this project, YPFB will invest US$4 million in a first step to adapt a plant to store ethanol and blender equipment for the initial amounts needed.
As for the second stage, he said they would implement storage and blender systems in all departments of the main cities of the country. He detailed that sugar factories around Santa Cruz ought to get ready to deliver the necessary volumes of fuel.
YPFB said that it will process 80 million liters in the first 12 months while to overall goal is to reach the 360 million liters. Private sugar producers of Santa Cruz asserted they have enough sugarcane plantations for sugar production and ethanol to be supplied to YPFB.
