To meet its crude oil and petroleum products demand, Paraguay relies completely on imports of approximately 25,400 barrels per day (4,040 m3/d) (bbl/d) (2006 est.).
[1] Paraguay's tax exemptions on imports of equipment for natural gas and petroleum exploration, development, and production are expected to continue in the medium and long terms.
Cement, natural gas, and petroleum investors have shown interest in the country, which could support continued economic growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) in new technologies well into the next decade.
[1] In August 2005, the Congress of Paraguay approved two acts that granted Chaco's subsidiary, Amerisur, two exploration concessions and one production permit for the Curupayty and the San Pedro Blocks.
As a requirement of the Paraguayan legislation, Chaco was to select an area of no more than 800,000 hectares per block for its two concessions (Curupayty and San Pedro) in order to enter into a 4-year exploration phase.
[2] State-owned Petróleos Paraguayos (Petropar) has a monopoly on all crude oil and petroleum product sales and imports in Paraguay.
although no hydrocarbon reserves had been proven at the Emilia prospect, it was considered the most potentially productive property of CdS with an estimated recoverable resource of 40,000,000 barrels (6,400,000 m3) of oil.
[2] Paraguay's economy is expected to continue to grow, but its GDP is likely to be highly dependent on the outcome of MErCOSur's economic stability and growth in 2007.
According to the Banco Central del Paraguay (2007) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (2007), leading transnational companies are interested in investing in the Paraguayan mineral industry and, in particular, in the cement, natural gas, and petroleum sectors.
as an exporter of hydroelectricity, the country is poised to gain from the continued FDI inflows into its economy, which represented an increase of more than 56% in 2006 ($116.6 billion) compared with that of 2005 ($74.6 million).