For two decades, Bolivia’s gas debate revolved around how much to sell to Brazil and Argentina. Supreme Decree No. 5755 of 26 October 2026 starts from the opposite premise. On an exceptional basis, it authorises individuals and legal entities, public or private, to import natural gas (NG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for their own consumption or for power generation. The measure rests on the energy and social emergency declared in January by Supreme Decree No. 5517 and follows the logic of Supreme Decree No. 5598, which in March allowed any electricity market participant to trade power across borders.
The backdrop is familiar to the industry. A projection by the gas and power marketer Alpes Energy, reported by EconoJournal, puts Bolivian output at 26.6 million cubic metres a day in 2026, down from 56.6 million in 2016, and expects that, absent major discoveries, it would fall below domestic demand of roughly 14 million a day around 2032. Other analysts bring that date forward. The decree offers no figures of its own. It simply opens the door to anyone willing, and able, to buy gas abroad.
Who may import, and for what
The regime recognises two uses. Own consumption means gas destined “exclusively” for the importer’s operational or productive needs. Power generation is reserved for generating companies in the national electricity market, whether public, mixed or private, that burn the gas as fuel. The same rule governs both. Marketing or transferring those volumes to third parties is prohibited “in any form”, and a breach costs the importer its authorisation.
Corporate groups should read that phrase carefully. The decree draws no line between unrelated third parties and affiliates, so a structure in which one subsidiary imports and another consumes, or in which one plant passes surplus gas to a sister plant, is best reviewed before applying for authorisation rather than after.
An authorisation without requirements, for now
Individual authorisations will be granted by the regulator, which in the hydrocarbons sector is the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH). The requirements and procedure do not yet exist. The Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy must set them by ministerial resolution within up to 20 business days of the decree’s publication. From the publication of that resolution, the ANH will have up to a further 20 business days to issue the administrative resolutions on prior registration and on standard transport and distribution contracts. If both deadlines run their full course, the regime will not be fully operational for some 40 business days.
A detail that only emerges from a full reading deserves attention. The ANH authorisation is not a supporting document for customs clearance, and the decree states that the National Customs Service does not require it. Control is exercised before the regulator, not at the border. Before bringing the volumes into the country, the importer must register them with the ANH together with quality documentation and the purchase price; that filing serves traceability and oversight and is not a new authorisation. Importing without a valid authorisation carries a fine of 10%, and importing without prior registration one of 5%, both calculated on the purchase value of the average daily volume imported. With a base equivalent to a single day of purchases, the real deterrent is revocation.
Imported gas joins the existing network, and the queue
The decree slots imports into existing infrastructure. Pipeline gas is carried by the concessionaire or operator of the transport system to the City Gate or to the importer’s facilities, as applicable, and from the City Gate by the gas distribution licensee. LNG is carried by individuals or legal entities, Bolivian or foreign, holding an ANH operating licence. To that end the decree rewrites the LNG transport regulation approved by Supreme Decree No. 2571 and lists the documents required, including sufficient title, for at least one year, over the depots and yards where the units are kept. Importers that regasify on site will also need the authorisations and licences applicable to a regasification station.
Until the ANH sets specific tariffs, pipeline transport is charged at each concessionaire’s or operator’s current tariffs and distribution at domestic market rates. LNG transport is priced freely, on market terms.
The condition that matters most lies in the order of priority. Both services are subject to available capacity, and the decree sets how it is allocated among interruptible contracts. In pipelines, the domestic market comes first, followed by imported gas for the power sector, imported gas for other consumers, exports and, last, gas in transit, the category Supreme Decree No. 5206 introduced in 2024 to move Argentine gas to Brazil. In distribution networks, the domestic market comes first and imported gas second. An industrial user paying for its gas in foreign currency may therefore find its volumes queued behind domestic gas when capacity is tight. The firm standard contracts the ANH must approve will determine whether imports become a stable source of supply or a last resort.
The ranking also has a regional reading. Bolivia has sought to position itself as a corridor for Argentine gas bound for Brazil, and in April 2025 around half a million cubic metres moved through its network in a trial. Among interruptible contracts, the decree places that traffic behind the gas the country imports for itself.
What the decree leaves open
The decree covers authorisation, registration, quality, transport and penalties, but leaves out matters that will decide whether many projects are viable. The first is price. Importers must declare it, but the decree does not set it, and the gap with domestic gas is wide. Raúl Velásquez of Fundación Jubileo told El País that imports would cost between US$10 and US$12 per energy unit, 10 to 12 times the domestic market price. The second is payment. The text says nothing about access to foreign currency to settle purchases, a sensitive point for any importer. The third is the customs and tax treatment of the imports, which it does not address either. Generators face one more question, namely how the cost of gas bought at international prices will feed into electricity prices. Nor does the regime carry an expiry date of its own; it rests on the emergency declared by Supreme Decree No. 5517.
What to do now
For energy-intensive industries and generators located near entry points, or able to receive LNG, the decree opens an alternative to uncertain supply. These weeks are best used to gauge the transport capacity available on the relevant stretch of network, review corporate structures in light of the ban on transfers, negotiate quality clauses with suppliers that match dry gas specifications or, for LNG, the terms agreed in the contract, and assemble corporate and technical documentation ahead of the ministerial resolution. The opportunity is real, and its value will depend on two sets of rules not yet issued and on a queue in which imported gas does not come first.
