Brazil criticizes Bolivia's nationalization of natural gas
Bolivia's nationalization of its oil and gas industry was an "unfriendly" move, Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Silas Rondeau said on Monday.

"It is an unfriendly move that could be understood as a break with understanding made with the Bolivian government," Rondeau told Folha news.

Meanwhile, Jose Sergio Gabrielli, president of Brazil's government-run oil company Petrobras, also criticized the decision by Bolivian President Evo Morales.

"Evo Morales' decree was a unilateral measure adopted in an unfriendly way," Gabrielli told the official Brazilian news service Agencia Brasil in the U.S. city of Houston, where he was taking part in an international oil conference. "It obliges us to analyze very carefully our situation in the country."

"Petrobras will take all the necessary measures, at all levels, to guarantee its rights," he added.

Petrobras, a top investor in Bolivia, controls 14.5 percent of Bolivia's gas reserves and has invested millions in Bolivia since 1996.

Under a decree signed by Morales earlier in the day, Bolivia's state oil company YPFB will control all natural gas fields and pay foreign companies for their services.

Bolivia has a reserve of about 48.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the second largest deposit in South America, which is being exploited by about 20 foreign firms.

Morales, who took office in January as Bolivia's first Indian president, has repeatedly said his country's natural resources must be nationalized so that Bolivians could benefit from the profits that were sent overseas.
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