Bolivia's Congress approved 44 new oil and gas contracts negotiatedlast year with companies including Repsol YPF SA and Petroleo Brasileiro SA.


The 130-member Lower House and 27-member Senate voted unanimously for the new contracts in a joint session, Congress spokesman Jorge Aberman said in a telephone interview from La Paz. The contracts now await ratification by President Evo Morales, he said.


Last year, Morales seized oil and gas fields and refineries and forced 10 oil companies to agree to higher taxes as part of a drive to garner the Andean country a greater share of its natural resources. Bolivia has South America's second-largest natural gas reserves after Venezuela.


``This vote shows it's possible to build consensus,'' Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said in a broadcast by La Paz- based Radio Panamericana. ``It will help strengthen the nationalization of our hydrocarbon industry.''


Morales fired the head of state oil company YPFB, Manuel Morales Olivera, last month after the previous contracts negotiated with companies in October were found to be flawed.


Faced with uncertainty over the new contracts, Petrobras pulled out of an exploration block this month, while Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Energy Corp., and Allentown, Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp., pulled out of Bolivia earlier this year.


``The delay in the approval of the contracts puts at risk vital plans to reactivate the industry and investment needed to meet commitments,'' the Bolivian Hydrocarbon Chamber said in a statement this week.


Investment in Bolivia's oil and gas industry fell to $120 million last year from $650 million in 2002, according to the lobby, which represents 100 companies operating in Bolivia.


Source: Bloomberg News