La Paz (AFP) – The Bolivian government reported on Wednesday that it placed the state oil company YPFB under its temporary supervision due to deficiencies in the import and distribution of fuels, in the midst of a serious supply crisis.

First modification: 09/03/2026 - 03:25

In addition to the intervention, the Ministry of Hydrocarbons announced that the government has "the intention" to "gradually" remove YPFB from its role as marketer to hand it over to private companies and dedicate themselves to exploitation, exploration and refining.

The state company is currently in charge of marketing the fuel, a process that includes everything from its import to its distribution in the domestic market.

Long waiting lines are common at gas stations, with some drivers sleeping in their vehicles.

The supply problem has become the main obstacle for center-right President Rodrigo Paz, who took power in November 2025 with the promise of solving the shortage.

"The national government arranges the Extraordinary State Intervention of YPFB to recover its efficiency, strengthen its fuel supply and make its logistics chain transparent," the presidential office reported on Facebook.

The intervention has a period of up to 180 days and does not imply the suppression of the company. According to the decree, published on Tuesday in the official gazette, the aim is to "obtain reliable and sufficient information to prepare an analysis."

An intervention commission will be made up of the ministers of Economy, Sustainable Production, Hydrocarbons and Public Works and the vice minister of Transparency, who will recommend audits and actions.

"The regular measures that we had taken did not work and (...) that is why we are taking this extraordinary measure" of intervention, Marcelo Blanco, Minister of Hydrocarbons, said at a press conference.

Blanco attributed the shortage to YPFB's "logistical deficiencies in import and distribution."

"The intention of the national government is that" the state company "returns to its natural role" of exploration, exploitation and refining and "does not dedicate itself to marketing hydrocarbons," said the senior official.

Chronic shortage

In December, Paz eliminated fuel subsidies, an emblematic policy of the socialist governments of Evo Morales (2006-2019) and Luis Arce (2020-2025) that plunged Bolivia into its worst economic crisis in four decades.

It depleted foreign currency reserves and ended up complicating the continuity of imports of the same fuels that were subsidized.

Paz promised that ending subsidies would put an end to long waiting lines at gas stations, but that has not happened until now.

And to this unrest was added in January a wave of complaints against YPFB for distributing contaminated gasoline, which damaged at least 36,000 vehicles until June.

Mauricio Zamora, Minister of Public Works, denounced to the press that "half of the fuel" imported by the State ends up smuggled to other countries, with the complicity of YPFB workers.

Some intermittent protests by farmers have been reported since last week, after the Executive doubled the price of diesel to 1.5 dollars per liter to prevent its low internal price from being used for smuggling, which it points out as the cause of the current shortage.

With tires and trees downed, dozens of protesting farmers gathered to block the passage for 24 hours to a line of trucks and other vehicles in the town of Cuatro Cañadas, one of the four blockade points registered in the eastern department of Santa Cruz this Wednesday, AFP confirmed.

The road occupations challenge the state of emergency that the government decreed to extinguish previous protests against the economic crisis, which paralyzed the country between May and June.

© 2026 AFP

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