Bolivia Grants State-run Company Permission to Use Crypto to Buy Oil and Gas

Bolivia’s government has granted the state-run oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) permission to use crypto to buy oil and gas products.

The Bolivian media outlet Urgente reported that President Luis Arce’s cabinet has also given YPFB the go-ahead to purchase US dollars from domestic financial institutions, including the state-run bank Banco Unión.

Bolivia: Crypto Move

The Cabinet noted that YPFB was free to use USD or crypto to conduct fuel import-related deals with overseas vendors.

YPFB engineers at a facility in Bolivia. (Source: YPFB/Facebook)

The government issued a special decree permitting the firm to use crypto and USD specifically to buy “crude oil and diesel.”

The firm can also use crypto to buy related products that can be used to refine gasoline.

Arce’s crisis-hit government has been locked in a standoff with Bolivia’s Former President Evo Morales since last year.

Clashes between groups loyal to Arce and those who support Morales have led to armed takeovers of military posts and road blockades.

Arce’s government has also been best with problems in the Bolivian parliament, the Plurinational Legislative Assembly.

La Paz says this has “impeded the entry of foreign currency” by “blocking the approval of loans totaling over $1.667 billion.”

This has left YPFB short of the foreign currency it needs to pay for fuel imports. In turn, this has led to a drop in supplies of both diesel and gasoline.

Media outlets in Bolivia report that “long lines of vehicles” have formed at gas stations across the Latin American nation.

A YPFB vehicle at a facility in Bolivia. (Source: YPFB/Facebook)

La Paz: ‘Budgetary Adjustments’ Required

The same media outlet noted that the country “needs at least $60 million per week to import fuel, both diesel and gasoline.”

The decree instructs YPFB to “make budgetary adjustments to allow it to cover […] financial costs.”

The Cabinet has also instructed the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy and the National Hydrocarbons Agency to “determine the subsidies” for fuel buys “in accordance with applicable regulations.”

The Arce government has previously set aside a budget of around $2.2 billion for fuel imports.

The Rise of Crypto-powered Oil Payments

The number of countries using crypto to buy and sell oil and gas is thought to be on the rise.

Experts think countries fighting sanctions regimes are now turning to crypto as a payments tool.

The government of Iran approved the use of crypto for imports in 2022, with some in Moscow calling Tehran a “pioneer” in crypto-powered trade.

Venezuela has also used crypto in fossil fuel trade deals. This, at one stage, led to the Nicolás Maduro-led government reportedly amassing a huge “stash” of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) coins.

Maduro last year urged Venezuela to “return to the crypto path,” following a crackdown on crypto-related corruption.

Many believe that Russian oil firms have made extensive use of crypto. Moscow has also openly spoken about using crypto to bypass US, EU, and UK sanctions for both imports and exports.

Last year, the Bolivian lawmaker Mariela Baldivieso said farmers in the country could soon start using crypto as a remittance tool .

She also claimed the country was poised to move into the global top five nations for crypto adoption.