Bolivia's state energy firm YPFB will use cryptocurrency to pay for energy imports amid a painful shortage of dollars and fuel in the landlocked South American nation, a company spokesperson and a government official told Reuters on Wednesday.

The country is battling a dangerous slide in foreign currency reserves afters years of dwindling exports of natural gas, which has sparked off a fuel crisis in the country with regular long lines at gas stations and scattered protests.

A spokesperson for state-run energy firm YPFB told Reuters that a system had been put in place to use cryptocurrency to purchase fuel imports after a government approval to use digital assets to help meet demand.

"From now on, these (cryptocurrency) transactions will be carried out," the spokesperson said, adding that the new purchasing system was designed to help support national fuel subsidies in Bolivia amid a shortage of hard currency.

A government spokesperson said that YPFB had not yet made use of digital currency to purchase energy imports, but that it was planned to do so.

Bolivia, for decades a net energy exporter due its large reserves of gas, has become reliant on imports as domestic gas production has dwindled amid a lack of major new finds.

[Reuters]