06 Feb The night, the trains, rock oil, and a statement
“Dear co-owner, we appreciate your acceptance for the execution of civil works for residential gas installation.”
The Administration
With this cold and formal note, The Administration of the building informed us (while simultaneously asking for permission) that in the coming weeks, all the neighbors would have access to natural gas. Upon reading this note, I thought about the journey we had to take to reach this point. Nowadays, “this natural gas thing” seems very normal to us, but I want to tell you, dear reader, that it was not always this way. The energy history of Bolivia is, to say the least, fascinating. Certainly, I won’t attempt to go over this rich history in the few lines of this post—nor do I think I would dare to do so. I will simply share some anecdotes and present figures that reflect my perspective.
Bolivia has been, and still is, a mining country. It is no surprise, then, that the railway system was one of the first to develop, as it was necessary to “get the minerals out” to export markets. For this reason, the western part of my country experienced a remarkable boom in railway development. Even children’s rhymes were created about it: “Ferrocarril, carril, carril… Arica-La Paz, La Paz, La Paz… Un paso pa’trás, pa’trás, pa’trás.” Like all children’s rhymes, it had a melodious rhythm and a dreadful reality (just think of “Arroz con Leche”!). In this case, the rhyme referred to the slowness of this means of transport.
Now, I invite you to imagine a small town in the Bolivian highlands—mud houses, freezing temperatures (let’s say 0°C), and very precarious conditions. Around two in the morning, the distant whistle of a steam locomotive is heard, announcing its swift passage through the cold winter night. Under the moonlight, several men hurriedly leave their homes and wait for the train to pass. They know that if they are lucky, a large, burning piece of coal will fall off, and that will surely mean warm nights for their families and, most importantly, a useful source of energy for daily meals.
This anecdote, which I owe to my father, reflects in many ways how access to energy can improve people’s lives. Naturally, in the early stages of human development, energy sources came from what nature provided: firewood, guano, etc. However, human ingenuity led to the search for new sources of energy. A fascinating account of this can be found in the book The Prize by Daniel Yergin. In it, we learn that Abraham Gesner developed a method to extract “oil” from asphalt and refine it. Dr. Gesner called this “oil” kerosene, from the Greek words keros and elaion, meaning wax and oil, respectively. It is almost immediate to anticipate that the word petroleum comes from Greek, meaning rock oil.
Now, imagine Bolivia in the 1960s and 1970s—the rise of The Beatles, psychedelic music, Los Grillos (a Bolivian band), and of course, Elvis. You might easily picture these cultural elements, but what you may not recall (or may not know, for younger readers) is that families used kerosene for cooking. Indeed, a kerosene stove, manual pumping, and patient waiting resulted in the daily ignition of the flame for a delicious “almuercito” (lunch) or a comforting “tecito” (tea time)—or “once” for Chilean friends, perhaps “colada” for Ecuadorian friends, or “té con cuentitas” for good Argentine friends.
With that in mind, I invite you to look at the following figure. It presents Bolivia’s final energy consumption in 1970, clearly showing the consumption of gasoline, diesel, and kerosene. You will notice that LPG (bottled gas) appears timidly. This is because, even then, Bolivia’s state-owned oil company (YPFB) was promoting a “shift in the energy matrix” from kerosene to LPG. Needless to say, many people complained—perhaps not without reason: “Food tastes better with kerosene… you know.”
At that time, Bolivia’s energy policy guidelines included:
Introducing LPG consumption.
Expanding oil exploration first, and natural gas later.
Attracting investment to the sector.
Advancing a national project to supply gas to Brazil.
Modifying legal frameworks to encourage exploration.
Investing billions of dollars to discover and certify reserves.
Convincing people that exporting natural gas was necessary.
Signing purchase and sale agreements with Brazil and Argentina.
In short, it took many decades of hard work to get where we are today. That is why I invite you to look at this beautiful energy matrix—see how natural gas now represents 22% of the energy we Bolivians consume. Of course, it was not free—it required past and present efforts to allow us to enjoy energy at our fingertips. However, there is still a great deal of work to do in rural areas—just look at biomass consumption.
I thought about all of this when I read the statement from the building administrator. I wanted to say something to the person with me in the elevator, but all I managed to say was: “We have gas!” To which she replied: “About time! Let’s just hope it doesn’t blow up in our homes.” I wanted to respond, but it was already time to leave. I just thought: “Damn!”
S. Mauricio Medinaceli Monrroy
Bogotá
February 6, 2025.
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