Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos
State-owned oil and gas corporation
of 100 · unstable trend · Some good traits but inconsistent
Standing
51/100
Raw Score
52/85
Confidence
67%
Evidence
Broad
About
Bolivia's state energy company combines broad public utility and national reach with persistent integrity and governance risk.
YPFB matters because it sits at the center of Bolivia's fuel supply, gas distribution and industrialization agenda. The strongest evidence in its favor is concrete: nationwide gas-network expansion, domestic fuel and LPG supply, urea exports, and a recent major gas discovery. The main drag is equally concrete: chronic production decline, import dependence, fuel shortages, a 2026 gasoline-quality failure, and overlapping corruption probes that undercut public trust.
Five Pillars
Pillar scores (0–100%)
YPFB scores well on public utility, national reach and institutional resilience, but its alignment is capped by repeated governance strain, import fragility and current corruption and fuel-quality controversies.
Goodness over time
Starts at 100 at birth, natural decay after accountability age, timeline events adjust the trajectory.
17 Criteria Scores
Individual item scores (0–5) with evidence notes
Reliability
Fuel-quality failures, raids and contract controversies materially weaken confidence in YPFBs reliability.
Personal Discipline
Visible reporting, ethics and control structures show some disciplined public practice, though not consistently enough.
Social benefit is mostly delivered through public-service mandate rather than explicit charitable obligation.
Core Worldview
Secular state enterprise; no direct devotional claim is scored here.
Strong long-horizon public mission around sovereignty, supply and development.
Mission and vision show a visible moral-development frame, though not a deeply transcendent one.
Historical founders matter institutionally, but not as a sustained public moral model.
Transparency, complaint channels and public reporting exist, but scandals keep accountability from scoring higher.
Contribution to Others
Household gas access and energy affordability directly affect family life across Bolivia.
Domestic gas expansion and subsidized fuel systems materially help constrained households, despite supply problems.
YPFB directly supplies fuel, gas and related services to the domestic market at national scale.
Energy access, transport fuel and fertilizer production all widen practical economic capacity.
The reviewed record shows little direct youth-targeted social care beyond broad public-service effects.
A national fuel and gas distribution institution meaningfully supports travel, transport and regional connection.
Stability Under Pressure
YPFB absorbs recurring institutional stress without collapse, but often with visible turbulence.
The company has kept operating through production decline, dollar shortage and import pressure.
Its long history shows adaptation through nationalization, reform and acute public pressure.
Timeline
Key events and documented turning points
YPFB is created as Bolivia's state oil company
YPFB says it was created on 21 December 1936 as a public company owned by the Bolivian state after the Chaco War made hydrocarbons central to national development debates.
→ Established the institutional base for Bolivia's state-led hydrocarbon strategy.
highBolivia ends Standard Oil concessions and reinforces YPFB's sovereignty role
YPFB's official history describes 1937 as the year the Standard Oil concessions were cancelled, making public control of hydrocarbons a defining institutional commitment.
→ Deepened YPFB's role as a sovereignty instrument rather than a purely commercial company.
highHydrocarbons are renationalized and YPFB is refounded as the sector's central operator
YPFB's history says the 2006 nationalization restored state sovereignty over hydrocarbons and re-centered YPFB as the operating core of the sector.
→ Set the basis for later network expansion, industrialization and broader state control.
highYPFB begins exporting urea
YPFB's history says urea exports began in late 2017, marking a move into higher-value industrialization instead of relying only on raw hydrocarbon extraction.
→ Added a visible industrial and export-delivery dimension to YPFB's role.
mediumYPFB reaches one million household gas connections
YPFB says it reached one million domestic gas connections in 2019, taking service to more than five million beneficiaries and achieving national coverage of about 65%.
→ Strengthened YPFB's strongest observable claim in social care: direct household utility at national scale.
highBolivia announces the Mayaya gas discovery under YPFB's upstream plan
Bolivia announced a 1.7 trillion cubic foot gas discovery at Mayaya Centro-X1 in July 2024, described in reporting as the biggest find since 2005 and tied to YPFB's upstream reactivation efforts.
→ Offered a credible recovery path for an institution facing declining mature fields.
highYPFB adopts a crypto payment mechanism for fuel imports amid dollar shortages
Reuters reported in March 2025 that YPFB had put in place a system to use cryptocurrency for fuel imports as Bolivia faced dollar scarcity, fuel shortages and long lines at gas stations.
→ Showed operational improvisation under pressure, but also confirmed how fragile the institution had become under import stress.
highBolivian prosecutors raid YPFB offices over fuel-contract investigations
Reuters reported that prosecutors investigated crude contracts between YPFB and Trafigura and raided YPFB offices in La Paz and Santa Cruz in April 2026, while official channels were also describing Botrading-linked investigations and missing funds.
→ Deepened the institution's integrity problem and reinforced public perceptions of weak control over procurement and trading.
highYPFB accepts responsibility for the 2026 gasoline-quality crisis and tightens controls
YPFB said in May 2026 that contaminated gasoline had affected thousands of vehicles, accepted institutional responsibility, and introduced tighter import specifications, origin inspections, additives, more than 120 monthly tests and proposals for updated fuel-quality rules.
→ Showed a real corrective response, but only after a visible public failure that damaged trust.
highPressure Tests
Behavior under crisis or scrutiny
Hydrocarbon refoundation and renewed state control
2006Bolivia renationalized hydrocarbons and re-centered YPFB as the operating core of the sector.
Response: YPFB expanded its public mandate into networks, commercialization and later industrialization.
positive_resilienceDollar shortage and fuel-import stress
2025Bolivia faced fuel shortages and hard-currency scarcity severe enough that YPFB set up a crypto-based payment mechanism for imports.
Response: The company improvised an emergency import-payment workaround to keep fuel flowing.
mixed_pressureFuel-contract and Botrading-related investigations
2026Prosecutors raided YPFB offices and official bodies described significant missing-funds and contract-investigation concerns tied to prior management.
Response: Current leadership backed investigations and framed them as part of a cleanup effort, but the underlying allegations remain serious.
negative_integrityGasoline-quality crisis and institutional response
2026Contaminated gasoline affected vehicles nationwide and exposed weak storage, specification and quality-control design.
Response: YPFB accepted responsibility, tightened contracts, raised testing and proposed regulatory reform.
mixed_resilienceProgression
crisis years
Falling domestic production, hard-currency stress and governance controversies exposed serious fragility beneath YPFB's scale.
downcurrent stage
YPFB is trying to rebuild capacity through tighter controls, contract changes and new exploration, but the institution remains unstable rather than fully recovered.
mixedearly years
YPFB began as a sovereignty-driven state oil institution after the Chaco War and quickly tied its identity to public control of hydrocarbons.
upgrowth years
The refounded company deepened its public reach through nationalization, gas-network expansion and industrialization projects like urea.
upBehavioral Patterns
Positive
- • YPFB repeatedly converts state scale into real household energy access through gas-network expansion and core fuel supply.
- • The institution has shown staying power across nationalization, refounding and repeated sector stress.
- • YPFB has moved beyond extraction alone into fertilizer production, export activity and new exploration.
Concerns
- • Political entanglement and weak controls have repeatedly damaged trust in YPFB's governance.
- • Operational stress has spilled into the public realm through shortages, quality failures and emergency import measures.
- • Recent corrective language is real, but it is arriving after material harm and under active investigation.
Evidence Quality
8
Strong
3
Medium
0
Weak
Overall: broad
This profile measures observable institutional behavior, not hidden intention or private belief.