Key Takeaways
- Bolivia began production testing at the Montecristo-9 (MTC-9) well in Santa Cruz on Tuesday, deploying hydraulic stimulation technology for the first time in the country's history.
- The $12 million completion phase, run by state operator YPFB Chaco, targets a 13% boost in national natural gas output and a jump of more than 40% in the fuels refined for the domestic market.
- President Rodrigo Paz separately floated a far larger, long-term figure — a $1.6 billion investment he said could eventually give rise to more than 90 productive fields — while comparing the area's geology to Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale formation. So far, only one outlet has reported that specific claim.
- The test comes as Bolivia's proven gas reserves have shrunk to 3.7 trillion cubic feet, with the state oil company itself warning the country could need to import gas as soon as 2031.
Bolivia switched on production testing this week at a well designed to prove out a drilling technique the country has never used before, betting a first $12 million on the idea that gas trapped in hard-to-reach rock can help slow a fuel-import bill that keeps climbing. President Rodrigo Paz opened the test phase Tuesday at the Montecristo-9 (MTC-9) well in the Okinawa 1 municipality of Santa Cruz, where state oil company YPFB is trying hydraulic stimulation for the first time in Bolivian history.
A drilling technique Bolivia has never tried before
MTC-9 was drilled to reach the Los Monos formation and, according to regional outlet Infodiez, the deeper Huamampampa layer as well — two low-permeability rock bodies where gas doesn't move easily toward the surface on its own. Hydraulic stimulation is meant to change that, and YPFB president Sebastián Daroca explained that the rock is so tightly packed that only this kind of technology can reveal what the well is truly capable of producing. Paz was more direct about the novelty: "This has never been done in Bolivia before," he said at the launch event, which also drew Hydrocarbons Minister Marcelo Blanco, Santa Cruz Gov. Juan Pablo Velasco and Okinawa 1 Mayor Franz Limber Justiniano.
The stimulation work itself began Aug. 14 and proceeded in stages, according to Cadena Láser, which also reported that an earlier 2025 drilling phase — budgeted separately at roughly $13 million and targeting a depth of 3,860 meters — had pointed to an initial output of 3 million to 6 million cubic feet of gas per day. On the well's distance from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, sources disagree: the Spanish wire service EFE, carried by Infobae, puts Okinawa at 111 kilometers northeast of the departmental capital, while Infodiez puts it at roughly 37 kilometers — a gap worth flagging rather than quietly picking a side on.
The numbers riding on a single well
YPFB Chaco, the operating subsidiary of YPFB Corporación, is running the $12 million completion phase on credit lines that the government says will be repaid out of the field's own future output. If the reservoir performs, officials are projecting a 13% increase in the natural gas Bolivia produces nationwide and more than a 40% jump in the gasoline and diesel refined domestically. Daroca framed the well as a turning point for reserves the company had left untouched for years: "Montecristo opens up exactly this possibility for us," he said. Hydrocarbons Minister Blanco added that the project was meant to answer skeptics with results rather than promises: "This isn't built with speeches, but with actions like this one," he said.
Should the test succeed, YPFB has already named five more mature fields — Okinawa, Remanso, Monteverde, Ayoreo and Colibrí — as candidates for the same technique.
A much bigger number, and a claim still standing alone
Paz went further than the official project figures in remarks captured by FmBolivia, telling the crowd that developing the broader structure around the well could eventually draw $1.6 billion in investment and give rise to more than 90 productive fields. He compared Okinawa's geology to Vaca Muerta, the shale formation that has turned neighboring Argentina into a major gas producer.
The test arrives against a grim backdrop for Bolivian energy. Proven gas reserves have fallen to just 3.7 trillion cubic feet, and YPFB itself acknowledged in an accountability report that without a reversal in the production curve, the country could need to start importing gas by 2031. Other analysts see less runway: some independent estimates put that turning point as early as 2028. Bolivia has already been a net energy importer since April 2022, and consultancy Gas Energy Latin America has pegged the resulting trade deficit at roughly $1.1 billion. The strain shows up at the pump, too — the country imports 60% of the gasoline and 95% of the diesel it consumes, at a weekly cost Noticias SIN reports at around $90 million, a burden that has translated into long lines at gas stations on and off since Paz took office in November.
The Los Monos formation isn't a new idea for Bolivia's oil planners — it has sat in YPFB's blueprints for unconventional Chaco gas for more than a decade, a frontier that previously drew pushback from Guaraní communities worried about aquifer contamination.
Paz tied the well to two infrastructure promises: a study for a future Okinawa–Los Troncos road and upgrades on the Okinawa–Guabirá route, part of a separate $90 million package under the government's "Patria Produce" banner. His pitch was straightforward — more domestically produced gas means less money spent buying fuel abroad and more left over for hospitals, schools and roads.
What happens next
For now, Montecristo-9 remains in the testing phase. YPFB has not set a public date for releasing the technical and economic results that will determine whether the well becomes the template for the rest of Bolivia's aging gas fields.
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