[NYTr] Cuba Expects to Produce 4 million tons of oil, natural gas in 2007

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via The Intl Herald Tribune - October 28, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/28/business/CB-FIN-Cuba-Energy.php


Cuba to produce 4 million tons of oil, natural gas in 2007: Official

The Associated Press

HAVANA: Cuba will produce about 4 million tons of oil and natural gas
this year, a top government official said in comments published Sunday
by state media. It would be a slight increase over 2006.

Touring the Nico Lopez refinery on the east side of Havana Bay, Vice
President Carlos Lage said Cuba "is in position to meet its plan of
almost 4 million tons of oil and natural gas this year."

In 2006, Cuba produced 3.9 [sic] million tons of oil and natural gas:
2.9 million tons of oil equal to more than 22 million barrels, and about
100,000 tons of natural gas. The new report did not break down the oil
and gas figures for this year.

The Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde quoted Lage as saying
that modernization of the Nico Lopez facility has helped save nearly 1
million liters (26,000 gallons) of gasoline in just two months. The
paper reported that upgrading the refinery took nine months and cost
more than US$4.3 million (?3 million).

Cuba has been producing 85,000 barrels of petroleum and 120 million
cubic feet (3.4 million cubic meters) of natural gas a day, a dramatic
increase from a decade ago but still not enough to meet its needs.

Officials are betting on even richer deposits offshore, where foreign
companies are engaged in exploratory drilling in partnership with the
communist government.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close friend and ally of Fidel
Castro, is providing nearly 100,000 daily barrels of oil to the island
in exchange for Cuban social services including doctors and health care
initiatives.

Still, Lage said Cuba is forced to purchase some oil on the open
market, and is feeling the worldwide pinch of spiking prices.

"Even though we maintain the contract with Venezuela which gives us
favorable commercial conditions, the country has to buy a certain
amount of fuel on the international market," the newspaper quoted him
as saying. "That's why saving energy is a prime responsibility at the
moment."