LIMA — Foreign investors in Bolivia’s gas sector have bowed to the leftwing government’s nationalisation plan, agreeing to pay up to 82 per cent in tax, hand over control of commercialisation to the state and invest billions of dollars in the Andean country. ‘With these new contracts we want to generate more economic resources to solve the economic and social problems of our country,’ said Evo Morales, the leftwing Bolivian president. The Bolivian Hydrocarbons Chamber, which represents foreign investors such as Petrobras, Repsol, Total and British Gas, said the new accords would create ‘a positive and lasting relationship between partners – the companies and the state’. Mr Morales announced in May he was nationalising Bolivia’s gas reserves, the second largest in the region, and gave foreign operators 180 days to renegotiate their operating contracts or leave the country. All big foreign investors had threatened to take Bolivia to international arbitration but ultimately that proved no more than a negotiating tactic. A sticking point in the race to meet the deadline was the companies’ reluctance to be downgraded to mere service providers, operating turn-key contracts in which YPFB, the Bolivian state company, would be officially in […]