Bolivia’s National Industry Chamber Proposes Energy Security Commission to Address Supply Crisis

The National Chamber of Industries (CNI) initiated high-level discussions with the Bolivian Hydrocarbons and Energy Chamber to create a permanent Energy Security Commission focused on public policy development. CNI President Gonzalo Morales led the engagement alongside Treasurer Christian Claure, General Manager Marcelo Barrón, and Director Gerardo Velasco in meetings with Iver Von Borries, executive director of the hydrocarbons chamber. The proposed commission structure emphasizes both immediate interventions to stabilize current supply and medium-to-long-term strategies for continuous energy provision.

The CNI identified reliable, competitively-priced energy access as fundamental to industrial sector performance, directly affecting productivity levels, investment decisions, and broader economic expansion. Current energy constraints impose cost pressures on manufacturers while creating uncertainty that deters capital deployment in production facilities. The commission proposal responds to these operational challenges by seeking coordinated action across Bolivia’s fragmented energy landscape.

Planned commission membership extends beyond traditional industry representatives to encompass the Bolivian Electricity Chamber, photovoltaic energy producers, other renewable generation sources, and major consumption sectors including the National Association of Medium Miners. This broad stakeholder approach attempts to reconcile competing demands on limited energy resources while identifying expansion pathways that serve multiple economic sectors simultaneously.

The initiative includes plans for comprehensive energy matrix reform leveraging Bolivia’s comparative advantages in specific generation technologies. Implementation would require regulatory adjustments to enable new investment frameworks, with the CNI emphasizing economic, environmental, and social sustainability principles. The proposal implicitly acknowledges that Bolivia’s current energy governance structure lacks coordination mechanisms to balance supply development against accelerating demand from industrial expansion, mining operations, and electrification programs.

Bolivia’s energy vulnerability has intensified as natural gas production declines from mature fields while exploration investment remains constrained. The proposed commission represents the industrial sector’s attempt to formalize influence over energy policy development rather than accepting supply conditions as external constraints. Whether the mechanism can mobilize sufficient investment to close supply gaps while transitioning from hydrocarbon dependence remains uncertain given Bolivia’s fiscal limitations and regulatory instability.