Major energy firms including Petrobras and Repsol YPF ended months of talks with the government with last-minute agreements before a deadline set for midnight Saturday, agreeing to new contracts handing over a larger share of their profits to the Bolivian state.

The deals amounted to a political boost for Morales, the country's first indigenous leader, who has faced criticism for months that the process had been slow-moving and clouded with uncertainty.

"With these new contracts we want to generate more economic resources to solve the economic and social problems of our country. That's our great wish," Morales said during a signing ceremony attended by company executives.

A nationalization decree issued by Morales on May 1 gave foreign companies six months to negotiate new contracts handing over a majority stake in their Bolivian operations or abandon the country.

Brazil's Petrobras and Spain's Repsol YPF are the biggest investors in Bolivia's oil and gas industry, controlling 47.3 percent and 26.7 percent of the proven and probable natural gas reserves in the country.

Petrobras, Brazil's state-owned oil company, also pledged to invest $1.5 billion in Bolivia's energy industry after agreeing to operate in the country under state control, Juan Carlos Ortiz, the head of Bolivia's state-owned energy company YPFB, told Reuters.

On Friday night, France's Total and U.S-based Vintage became the first companies to comply with the nationalization.