Supreme Decree No. 5644 authorises private participation in the importation of liquid fuels, ending the effective monopoly under which importation of diesel and gasoline had been reserved to the state hydrocarbons company. The measure responds to sustained supply pressure and to the fiscal weight of the fuel subsidy, and it represents the most substantial liberalisation of Bolivia's downstream fuel market in many years.
What the decree authorises
The decree permits qualifying private operators to import diesel and gasoline for commercialisation in the domestic market, subject to authorisation by the competent sectoral authority. Importation is conditioned on registration, demonstration of technical and financial capacity, and compliance with the quality specifications applicable to fuels placed on the Bolivian market.
Critically, fuel imported under this route is directed at the segment of the market that operates outside the subsidised price structure. The decree does not extend the subsidy to privately imported volumes; it creates a parallel channel in which imported fuel may be sold at prices reflecting its actual landed cost.
Legal permission to import is not the same as a commercially viable import. The decree resolves the first question and leaves the second to the operator.
The commercial logic, and its limits
The economic proposition for a private importer rests on the gap between the subsidised domestic price and the unsubsidised price at which imported volumes may be sold. Where an industrial, mining, agricultural, or transport consumer values security of supply above the subsidised price, there is a market. Where the consumer's alternative is a subsidised litre at a state station, there is not.
This is the central strategic question for any operator evaluating entry. The addressable market is not Bolivian fuel demand in aggregate; it is the subset of demand that is currently unmet, or met unreliably, and that is willing to pay unsubsidised prices for certainty. Sizing that subset accurately matters more than the licensing analysis.
Regulatory and structuring considerations
Operators should expect the authorisation process to examine technical capacity in substance rather than form: storage, transport arrangements, quality assurance, and metering. Import operations will also engage the customs framework in full — tariff classification, valuation, and origin — alongside the sectoral regime, and the interaction between the two is where timelines are most often lost.
Foreign exchange remains a live consideration. Fuel importation is a dollar-denominated activity conducted for local-currency revenue, and following the move away from the fixed exchange rate regime, the currency exposure embedded in an import programme requires explicit management rather than assumption.
Contractual structuring deserves early attention. Supply agreements with end consumers should address price adjustment against landed cost, allocation of currency risk, and the consequences of subsequent regulatory change — including the possibility that the subsidy structure itself is modified during the life of the contract.
What this signals
Read alongside the temporary reduction of import tariffs and the recalibration of the exchange rate framework, the decree forms part of a coherent shift: the state is redistributing to private operators activity it had reserved to itself, in sectors where its own capacity has been constrained. For investors, the relevant question is whether that shift is durable. The decree is a supreme decree, and what a supreme decree grants a subsequent one can narrow.
How we can help
Our Hydrocarbons, Energy, and International Trade & Customs teams advise operators on authorisation and licensing, import structuring, customs and tariff treatment, supply contracting, and the regulatory risk analysis that entry into this market requires.
