Vietnam presses Cuba on debt

Before increasing investment in oil and construction on the island, Vietnam wants Cuba to find a way to its debt with rice exporter Vinafood and allow the opening of a Vietcombank office in Havana, official daily Viet Nam News reported.

Debt is rarely mentioned in the official communication between the two long-time partner countries.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung urged a Cuban delegation, in Hanoi for routine bilateral talks, to “continue creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to invest in the Caribbean nation and to encourage more Cuban investment in Viet Nam,” according to the official daily. Dung suggested the partners should “come up with solutions to settle outstanding debt” and urged Cuba to speed up the permit process for Vietcombank, the government foreign trade bank, to open a branch in Cuba.

“The presence of the bank will help facilitate the financial settlement between Vietnamese and Cuban companies and enable Vietnamese investors to invest in Cuba, particularly in the fields of construction, oil and gas, and trade,” Dung said, according to the newspaper.

Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca, who led the Cuban delegation, said Cuba wants Vietnam to continue to sell rice, and pledged to honor Cuba’s financial commitments by gradually reducing credit debts with Vinafood, according to Viet Nam News. Malmierca said Cuba wanted the partners to agree on a joint development strategy.

Neither Cuba nor Vietnam have released details about the debt.

Vietnam, a close political ally of half a century, has been selling 400,000 tons of rice per year to Cuba under generous conditions, making the fellow Communist nation the island’s main source of the basic staple. Payment terms in the past have included 450 to 540 days and either interest-free or very low interest financing. In September 2010, state company Vinafood 1 signed an agreement to sell Cuba 200,000 tons of rice, including 50,000 tons for a low price of $496 per ton.

Affected by a cash crunch in Cuba, bilateral trade dipped to $250 million in 2010 but is expected to grow again this year.

State oil company PetroVietnam leased an offshore block in Cuban waters and partnered with Russia’s Zarubezhneft, but has not performed an exploration drill yet. Meanwhile, state construction company Housing & Urban Development Corp. (HUD) in 2008 signed a letter of intent with Grupo Palmares to jointly build a 300-hectare golf community near Bauta, just west of Havana. HUD has also been negotiating construction of another golf course resort in Varadero as well as a hotel at Playa Santa Lucía in Camagüey province. In 2009, Vietnam also agreed to set up textile and electronics joint venture production in Cuba.

Dung committed to Vietnam’s continued support of rice cultivation programs in Cuba. Agricultural projects supported by Vietnam have played “a very important role” in Cuba, Malmierca said.

Meanwhile, Cuba wants to introduce new pharmaceutical products to the Vietnamese market, Malmierca said.

Source: Cubastandard

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Cuba: 5 Billion Barrels of Undiscovered Oil

Companies looking for oil in Cuban waters. (Courtesy of Jorge R. Piñon, click on the picture to enlarge)

US delegates head to Cuba to discuss deepwater ambitions.

Oil spill commission co-chief Bill Reilly is heading to Cuba next week to help evaluate that country’s plans for developing its oil resources, Dow Jones Newswires has learned.

The trip represents an important development in a thorny situation that has U.S. lawmakers raising concerns about potential oil spills and oil experts pressing the Obama administration to grant exemptions under the decades-long embargo.

The trip, which will involve a delegation of U.S. oil-drilling experts and environmentalists, coincides with Cuba’s effort to develop its offshore oil resources as a way to wean itself off imports from Venezuela. U.S. officials believe Cuba’s waters could contain more than 5 billion barrels of undiscovered oil.

Cuba’s efforts to tap its offshore oil will get off the ground later this year, when a consortium led by Spanish company Repsol YPF S.A. (REPYY, REP.MC) is expected to begin drilling a well in more than 5,500 feet of water off the country’s northern coast. If Repsol finds oil, it could touch off a quick-moving race to set up production in Cuban waters.

The delegation to Cuba, involving the International Association of Drilling Contractors and the Environmental Defense Fund, is on a fact-finding mission to determine the country’s long-term plans for pursuing its oil resources and identify steps to ensure safety and environmental protection. They’re scheduled to depart Monday.

The process of oil drilling in thousands of feet of water is “inherently risky,” said Daniel Whittle, Cuba program director at the Environmental Defense Fund and a member of the delegation. “We believe it’s imperative that if and when Cuba drills, they get it right.”

Reilly, as co-head of President Barack Obama’s oil-spill commission, helped to draft a report earlier this year that recommended U.S. officials work with Cuba and Mexico to develop shared standards for drilling in the Gulf. The oil-spill commission ceased operations in March after completing its work.

Cuba’s effort to promote drilling in its waters is presenting a thorny situation for U.S. lawmakers, regulators and companies.

Among the loudest critics of Cuba’s plans are Gulf Coast lawmakers who are raising questions about the country’s ability to respond to oil spills and the risks of crude oil washing on U.S. shores. Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican whose district faces the Gulf of Mexico, introduced a bill earlier this year to allow the Interior Secretary to deny U.S. oil exploration and development leases to companies that do business with Cuba.

“The United States is not going to see a drop of that oil,” said Max Goodman, a spokesman for Buchanan. “And we have learned from Deepwater Horizon that an oil spill can devastate a regional economy and pose long-term damage to our natural resources.”

Repsol will be drilling in waters that are deeper than those in which the Deepwater Horizon rig operated at the time it exploded last year. Repsol will be using a Chinese-built drilling rig that only recently left Singapore for Cuban waters. The rig is expected to arrive in November or December.

The rig, known as Scarabeo 9, was built to conform with the U.S. embargo and Repsol has said it will be following U.S. safety standards, Repsol representative Kristian Rix said.

“We are confident that we have the right personnel and materials to drill safely and successfully in the area,” Rix said.

If oil is discovered, Cuba has a greater chance of becoming less dependent on Venezuela for its energy needs. In 2009, the country produced roughly 50,000 barrels of oil a day from onshore and coastal wells, relying on imports to supply an additional 130,000 barrels to meet consumption levels, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Given the risks of an oil spill, oil and natural gas experts are urging the Obama administration to grant exemptions under the embargo to allow U.S. companies and experts to respond to a disaster. U.S. companies, such as Helix Energy Solutions, have been particularly aggressive in developing oil spill containment systems in the wake of the BP Plc (BP, BP.LN) spill.

Allowing U.S. companies and experts to respond to a Cuban spill would be in the U.S.’s best interest, given the proximity of the drilling to U.S. shores, said Jorge Pinon, former president of Amoco Oil Latin America and visiting research fellow at Florida International University.

“There is an experienced company doing the work [in Cuba]” Pinon said. “What we’re lacking is, in the case of an emergency, Repsol and the other operators will not be able to access the resources” in the U.S.

By Tennille Tracy
Source: gCaptain

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Russia's Gazprom Neft gains stake in four deepwater blocks offshore Cuba

With the approval from the Cuban authorities, Russian firm Gazprom Neft has gained interest in four deepwater oil and gas exploration blocks offshore Cuba.

Gazprom Neft, Cuba's national oil company Cubapetroleo (Cupet) and Malaysia's national oil company Petronas have signed a Supplementary Agreement to the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) on four blocks in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Cuba.

Through the agreement, Gazprom will now hold a 30 percent stake in deepwater Blocks 44, 45, 50 and 51 of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cuba. Petronas holds the remaining 70 percent interest in the project.

According to Oil & Gas Journal, the blocks are located 100 to 200 miles west of Havana.

Cuban Timeline

To date, 2D seismic has been performed across the acreage, and as of November 2010, an exploration well was scheduled for drilling in 2011.

In addition to the exploration and development of the blocks, the agreement allows for the production of oil through 2037 and the production of natural gas through 2042.

Petronas signed the PSC with the government of Cuba in 2006, and in October 2010, Gazprom Neft and Petronas signed a farm-out agreement and a Heads of Joint Operations Agreement on the leasehold.

After receiving approval from the Cuban authorities, Gazprom Neft and Petronas signed a Deed of Assignment, as well as a Joint Operating Agreement in July 2011.

“This partnership with Petronas will help Gazprom Neft to enforce its competence in the sphere of deepwater development and expand its expertise in projects outside of Russia,” said Alexander Dyukov, chairman of Gazprom Neft. “By 2020, we plan to have about 10 percent of our overall production from overseas projects.”

International Interest Offshore Cuba

While US firms are prohibited from operating in Cuba, many international oil and gas producers are eager to explore the Gulf of Mexico offshore Cuba. 

Following an oil discovery in 2004, Spanish operator Repsol has contracted the newbuild deepwater semisub Scarabeo 9 to drill for oil offshore Cuba. The rig constructor Keppel FELS reported that the rig is nearly ready.

Having drilled in Cuba before, Brazilian major Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) has also signed a joint oil and exploration production agreement for Block 37 offshore Cuba, and Venezuela's state-run firm PDVSA has also said that it will explore offshore Cuban waters for oil and gas.

By Phaedra Friend Troy

Source: PennEnergy

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Chavez's illness spells trouble for Cuba

Hugo Chavez back in Venezuela, last Monday, the 4th July.

Cuba depends on Venezuela for billions of dollars in subsidies that could disappear if Chavez doesn't recover.

As Hugo Chavez boarded a plane here early Monday for his return to Caracas, he stood on the tarmac with Raul Castro and offered some parting words of reassurance: “Venezuela and Cuba are the same thing, the same country,” he said.

And that, precisely, is what’s at stake for Cuba with Chavez now battling cancer. Billions in Venezuelan subsidies to the island — and other regional left-leaning allies — are riding on his recovery.

Two decades after the Soviet Union’s implosion brought chronic blackouts to Cuba and sent the island’s economy into a ditch, Havana is once again highly dependent on foreign largess to keep the lights on. Chavez provides Cuba with more than two-thirds of its petroleum needs, and the island earned an estimated $3.5 billion in trade last year with Venezuela, its largest source of hard currency.

Chavez, 56, has not disclosed what type of cancer he has, or what the prognosis is, only that he had a growth described as a pelvic abscess removed and that “cancerous cells” were discovered by Cuban surgeons.

When he landed Monday in Venezuela in preparation for his country’s bicentennial celebration, Chavez appeared upbeat and energetic, sending out messages to his 1.7 million Twitter followers and assuring television audiences he was “devouring” his meals.

But in Havana, it has been the start of concern. Chavez’s imperiled health brings new attention to the fragility of Cuba’s economy, at a time when 80-year-old Raul Castro is struggling to put the island’s finances in order and proceed with carefully managed, incremental liberalization measures.

Cuba’s communist government is planning to lay off hundreds of thousands of state employees over the coming years and is allowing the expansion of small private businesses and cooperatives. One big reason Havana can afford to conduct the reforms at its own pace is the dependable revenue coming from Caracas.

If Chavez’s rule were to end because of his illness or impact his December 2012 re-election bid, the return of 40,000 Cubans now working in Venezuela — mostly in the health care sector — would create still more financial strain for the Castro government.

Of greater worry is Cuba’s energy supply. Steady oil shipments from Venezuela have largely eliminated the chronic blackouts that plagued Cuba in the early 1990s and led to riots in Havana, as well as the chaotic departure of thousands of rafters for the U.S.

Back then, Fidel Castro was still at the height of his political powers, taking to the airwaves almost daily to pull Cubans through the crisis by the sheer force of his will. Now he’s 85, and far too frail to rally the country once more.

Public unrest in Cuba is closely linked to the power supply — especially during the torrid summer months — and over the past decade, Cuba has stabilized its electrical grid by installing a series of relatively small fuel-burning power plants. They run mostly on Venezuelan crude, and even as oil prices climbed over $100 a barrel in recent months, Cuba has continued to enjoy a reliable energy supply.

Cuba isn’t likely to find a quick alternative to Venezuelan oil, either. The island produces about 50,000 barrels of oil per day from domestic sources, used mostly for generating electricity. Spanish oil consortium Repsol is planning to begin drilling in offshore beds along Cuba’s north coast in the coming months, but even if it has a major strike, experts say it will take years to bring the crude to market.

Then there are hundreds of other commercial and trade agreements with Venezuela that could be jeopardized if the country’s next president isn’t as simpatico. Cubans privately worry those arrangements may be only as healthy as Chavez himself, a man who views Fidel Castro as his political father figure.

Other socialist allies around the region, like Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, are also highly reliant on Venezuelan oil diplomacy, along with the 19 nations of the Petrocaribe alliance, whom Chavez buffers from the global oil market’s volatility.

Chavez insists he is fine, and on the path to full recovery. In a written “Reflection” dedicated to Chavez’s illness Monday, Castro said the Venezuelan president had launched “a decisive battle” that “will lead him and his country to a great victory.”

But that victory now depends on the Cuban oncologists tasked with saving Chavez. While the location and stage of his cancer has been kept secret, experts speculate the area of affliction could be Chavez’s colon or prostate. A late-stage form of colon cancer would be extremely dangerous.

Chemotherapy treatments could force Chavez to withdraw from public view again, so his return to Caracas this week may also be a final attempt to put his political team in order before a lengthy absence.

Nick Miroff 

Source: Global Post

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Doubts over Chavez's health spur talk of successor

Speculation that Hugo Chavez could be suffering from a serious illness is putting attention on a predicament for the president's allies: It's unclear who could step forward if he had to step down.

Few Venezuelans are talking publicly about the possibility of President Hugo Chavez leaving office, partly because top government officials and close relatives have repeatedly said the president is recuperating in Cuba following surgery there two weeks ago.

Still, Chavez's silence and seclusion since the operation have spurred growing talk about his health, stirring fears among some supporters that their leader could be seriously ill.

The speculation has prompted some to ponder what would happen if failing health were to force Chavez to relinquish power. Until recently, even contemplating that possibility would have been considered absurd.

Under Venezuela's constitution, Vice President Elias Jaua would take the president's place during "temporary" absences of up to 90 days. And Jaua would serve the rest of Chavez's six-year term if the socialism-preaching president were to die or resign.

With a presidential election looming next year, such a scenario might put Jaua and other ruling party leaders in a tough position.

None of Chavez's close confidants share his charisma and knack for connecting with Venezuela's poor majority. That constituency has ultimately decided elections in this politically divided South American country.

Steve Ellner, a political science professor at Venezuela's University of the East, believes the future of Chavez's political movement would largely depend on whether ill health prevented Chavez from designating a successor.

"There is no second-in-command in the Chavez movement," Ellner said. "If Chavez is unable to endorse anyone, there will inevitably be dissension." Ellner said the situation would be much different if Chavez threw his support behind a would-be successor.

"There is a great sense of loyalty within the Chavez movement," he said. "If Chavez himself is unable to run for physical reasons, but endorses a given candidate, the movement will not fall apart." While there are no obvious candidates, some observers believe the president might tap Jaua or Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela's energy minister.

Diosdado Cabello, a former army officer who joined a 1992 coup attempt led by Chavez, was once perceived as Chavez's closest confidant. But Cabello's standing seems to have faded since he lost a 2008 re-election bid as the governor of Miranda state to a prominent opposition leader.

Venezuelan officials have limited their comments on Chavez's health to saying he's recuperating but have provided few details.

Jaua told an auditorium packed with government supporters Saturday that Chavez "is recuperating to continue the battle." He condemned Chavez's opponents for speculating about the president's health, accusing them of using the president's surgery to score political points before the next presidential election.

"They know they cannot beat our commander, Hugo Chavez, in an election," he said, adding: "Chavez is going to be around for a long time." Meanwhile, Chavez's Twitter stream has been active while not providing any information about his health. One message on Friday saluted Venezuela's military on a holiday marking a decisive independence battle.

Three messages appeared within 30 minutes Saturday afternoon, including one mentioning visits by Chavez's daughter Rosines and grandchildren. "Ah, what happiness it is to receive this shower of love!" the Twitter message read. "God bless them!" Nobody has heard Chavez publicly speak since he told Venezuelan state television by telephone on June 12 that he was quickly recovering from surgery two days earlier for a pelvic abscess. He said medical tests showed no sign of any "malignant" illness.
It remains unclear when he will return to Venezuela.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro urged Venezuelans on Friday to wish for Chavez's complete recovery and express their "most authentic love so that his health is re-established." "The battle that President Chavez is waging for his health must be everyone's battle: the battle for life, for the immediate future of our fatherland," Maduro added.

Miguel Tinker Salas, a Latin American studies professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California, said he thinks some people "are jumping the gun" by expressing doubts on Chavez's health and raising questions about a potential successor.

"I imagine that Chavez is enjoying this because people seem so concerned about his health," Tinker Salas said.

"I can imagine him joking about all this speculation in front of a crowd of supporters" sometime in the near future.

Source: Ahram Online

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Recalling Tiananmen in Cuba

Tiananmen Square, June 4, 1989.

Praises of Chinese socialism have appeared with greater frequency in the Cuban press over the last few years.

The city buses that cruise the capital, the merchandise sold in hard-currency stores and the modern cars driven by military officers and state leaders are virtually all produced in China.

The media reports to us ordinary Cubans about the relations that are being established between the government of our country and that of the Asian giant.

These small details were enough to allow predictions on how the Cuban media would cover the actions that were commemorated around the world on June 4.

Twenty-two years have passed since the events of Tiananmen Square yet we can still note an embarrassing silence here on the island.

The Communist Party of Cuba (though I would prefer to be mistaken) seconded the position of the Chinese Communist Party (PCCh) in treating what happened in that plaza as an “inappropriate” issue.

Because of this, millions of Cubans went along with that assessment without knowing the true position of the government and party in China, which has become an economic partner with Cuba.

On June 4, 1989, that now world-famous square was the witness of a massacre where even today it’s impossible to conclude the true toll of the dead and wounded.

The Chinese government gave the order to dissolve a demonstration of an estimated hundred thousand protesters, the majority students and workers.

The method used for putting an end to the protest: armed soldiers and tanks.

At Tiananmen Square the demonstrators requested the removal of corrupt rulers, freedom of the press, freedom of expression and free association, the end of the layoffs in factories and inflation, among other demands.

The method used for protesting was the hunger strike.

The only response given was a hail of bullets.

China just signed a letter of intent to redo a Cuban oil refinery. Business is business even for"communists"

The demonstrators were branded as counter-revolutionaries, criminals or agent provocateurs of the Western capitalist governments.

On several occasions those who were protesting sang the words of The International, recognized as the hymn of communism.
From this fact one could conclude that they were not aiming to renounce socialism.

But that wasn’t enough, as orders were given to squeeze the triggers.

Remembering the events in Tiananmen is a duty of all those on the left who are fighting against bureaucratic and totalitarian regimes around the world – those structures of individuals who attempt to smother people’s participation and leadership by perpetuating themselves in power at whatever the cost.

Daisy Valera  

Source: Havana Times

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Wikileaks reveal US concerns on Cuba-Venezuela ties

Chavez and Castro.

Cuban intelligence agents have deep involvement in Venezuela, according to a 2006 US diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks. 

Then-US Ambassador William Brownfield wrote that Cuban spies had "direct access" to President Hugo Chavez.

Another cable sent in 2010 said Cuban agents controlled spying operations against the US embassy in Caracas.

The left-wing governments of Cuba and Venezuela are close allies and outspoken opponents of the US.

The secret diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks were published by the Spanish newspaper, El Pais.

Similar allegations of Cuban intelligence influence in Venezuela have been made by Venezuelan opposition groups, but US officials have not publicly expressed such concerns.

The leaked cable from Ambassador Brownfield says the ties between Cuban and Venezuelan intelligence are so close that the two countries agencies "appear to be competing with each other for the Venezuelan government's attention". Indoctrination

The ambassador wrote that Cuban spies were so close to President Chavez that they provided him with intelligence unvetted by Venezuelan officers.

"Cuban agents train Venezuelans on both Cuba and Venezuela, providing both political indoctrination and operational instruction".

The ambassador concludes that the Cuban involvement could impact US interests directly.

"Venezuelan intelligence services are among the most hostile towards the United States in the hemisphere, but they lack the expertise that Cuban services can provide".

The level of Cuban involvement in other agencies of the Venezuelan government was harder to confirm, he wrote.

The embassy "had received no credible reports of extensive Cuban involvement in the Venezuelan military", but there were reports that Cubans were training Mr Chavez's bodyguard.

But Cubans were likely to be involved "to a great extent" in agricultural policy, as well as in an identity card scheme.

The ambassador added that it was impossible to tell how many Cubans were working in Venezuela.

Cuba's biggest and most public involvement in Venezuela is in the provision of tens of thousands of doctors and nurses who provide basic health services in poor areas.

In return, Venezuela provides Cuba with subsidized oil.

From: BBC News

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China company to lead $6B Cuba refinery update

Venezuela has already invested more than $1 billion at the Cienfuegos refinery according to the authorities.

Project will include refinery, LNG terminal

HAVANA - A unit of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) is set to begin in 2011 a $6-billion expansion project at Cuba's Cienfuegos refinery in one of the biggest investments ever on the communist-led island, a source close to the project said Monday.

The blockbuster deal will be financed mostly by China's Eximbank and backed by financial guarantees in the form of oil from Venezuela, Cuba's close socialist ally and leading trade partner, the source said.

State-owned CNPC's Haunqiu Contracting and Engineering Corp is expected to start the project in the first quarter with completion planned for the end of 2013.

The Italian unit of French oilfield service company Technip will do design and engineering for the project and assist in construction.

The expansion will increase the capacity of the Soviet era refinery 155 miles southeast of Havana to 150,000 barrels per day from 65,000.

But it will also include construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal with capacity to process 2 million tons of gas annually, and a 150 megawatt electricity generation plant.

"It is one of the biggest investments in the history of Cuba. It's a minimum of $4.5 billion just for the refinery and another $1.3 billion for the LNG terminal," an executive involved with the project told Reuters.

The expanded refinery could play an important role in processing Cuban oil if the island finds significant quantities of petroleum in its waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

Several companies are planning to sink exploratory wells off Cuba's northern coast starting next year.

The project greatly expands China's role in Cuba's energy sector, which, at least publicly, has been small. China is Cuba's No. 2 trade partner.

Beijing is assisting in production of oil along Cuba's northern coast and has leased an onshore block for exploration near Havana.

CHINESE FINANCING, VENEZUELAN GUARANTEES

The offshore drilling rig to be used in exploring Cuban waters next year has been under construction in China, but whether the Chinese government has had a role in that project is not known.

Although final details are still being negotiated by the governments of China and Venezuela, the source said about 85 per cent of the cost will be financed by China's Eximbank and secured by China Export & Credit Insurance Corp.

"But the investment is totally guaranteed by the Venezuelan government, through off-takes of PDVSA crude oil," said the source.

The Cienfuegos refinery, operated by state-owned CubaPetroleo and state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), has been the centrepiece of the strategic alliance between Cuba and Venezuela.

The refinery was built during the Soviet era, but never operated until it was activated in 2007 after Venezuela helped refurbish its antiquated facilities to process part of the 115,000 barrels a day that Venezuela sends to Cuba at preferential terms.

The most recent official figures showed Cienfuegos was producing about 55,000 barrels per day of oil products.

Refinery expansion will become important for Cuba if significant offshore oilfields are found in its waters, and the Cienfuegos project is being done with that in mind.


"The expansion of the refinery is tied to the exploration in the Gulf of Mexico," the source said.

The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated Cuba has about 5 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of gas offshore, but Cuba says it could have at least 20 billion barrels of oil.

A consortium led by Spanish oil firm Repsol YPF is planning to drill an exploration well next year, as is Malaysia's Petronas in conjunction with new partner, Russian firm Gazprom.

Other oil companies such as Brazil's Petrobras, ONGC Videsh, a unit of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp, PDVSA, PetroVietnam and Russia's Zarubezhneft have exploration leases in Cuban waters, with plans to develop them.

Oil expert Jorge Pinon at Florida International University in Miami said Cuba has been installing oil storage tanks in Matanzas along the northern coast and reconstructing a pipeline that runs from there to Cienfuegos.

"The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place," he said.

By Esteban Israel, Reuters

From:  Calgary Herald

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Gazprom gets stake in blocks off North Cuba

Cuban offshore blocks.

JSC Gazprom Neft will acquire a 30% stake from Malaysia’s state Petronas in four Gulf of Mexico blocks off Cuba’s western coast.

Blocks 44, 45, 50, and 51 lie 100-200 miles west of Havana and slightly farther southwest of Key West, Fla.

The agreement is subject to approval by Cuban authorities. Gazprom said, “The possibility to work on the shelf of Cuba was initially considered by Gazprom Neft’s board of directors in early October 2010, when the board acknowledged a positive long-term outlook to the company’s activity in this region.”

Cuba’s government signed the production-sharing agreement covering the four Cuban foreland basin shelf blocks with Petronas in 2007. Petronas holds the remaining 70% interest.

The PSA provides for geological exploration on the blocks with the possibility of oil production until 2037 and gas production until 2042. Petronas has shot 2D seismic on the blocks and expects to spud the first exploratory well in 2011.

From: Oil & Gas Journal

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Cuba To Promote Foreign Investment

Cuba in future will be a country that promotes foreign investment, expands the private sector and dutifully pays off its debts, according to a proposal revealed on Monday by the ruling Communist party.

But it will not renounce the socialist system installed half a century ago after Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution, according to the 32-page document that will guide debates at a Communist party congress in April.

"The economic policy in the new phase will correspond with the principle that only socialism is capable of overcoming difficulties and preserving the gains of the revolution, and that in the updating of the economic model, planning will be paramount, not the market." - it said.

The document, entitled "Guidelines of Economic and Social Policy," is the program of reforms President Raul Castro will place before the party congress for its consideration.

They could be modified during extensive public discussions ahead of the congress, which was announced by the president on Monday night and will be the first since 1997.

The congress is where Cuba's only legal political party sets direction for the country, supposedly for the next five years, although it will have been 14 years since the last meeting.

The April gathering will be particularly important because, given the age of current leadership, it will be the last for the generation that fought the revolution and has held power since then, hewing hard to communist ideology.

President Castro, 79, took office in 2008 after older brother Fidel Castro, 84, ruled the island for 49 years and finally resigned due to ill health.

He promised to improve the daily lives of Cubans and has focussed on economic improvement, including major reforms announced in September to cut a million government jobs and expand the private sector by granting 250,000 new licenses for self-employment.

ONLY THE ECONOMY
He said Cuba's economy will be the only topic at the congress.

The guidelines include reforms already begun by Raul Castro -- among them the reduction of the state's role in the society and the decentralization of agricultural management.

They include a proposal to eliminate the monthly food ration Cubans receive, symbol of decades of state paternalism and a particular target of Raul Castro, who says handouts have discouraged productivity.

They also call for provisions for bank credits for the new self-employed and wholesale stores to cut their costs, but also for them to pay taxes to finance public spending.

In contrast to past policy, state-owned businesses that do not make money will be completely liquidated.

And the authorities will look to improve the country's international credibility "through the strict fulfilment of contract commitments."

Cuba's standing with the international business community has been damaged the past two years as a cash crunch forced the freezing of Cuban bank accounts held by foreign businesses and of payments to many of them.

The party also proposes "to continue encouraging the participation of foreign capital in Cuba, complementing national investment in those activities of interest to the country."


The document mentions, for example, the development of golf courses, marinas and luxury condominiums to attract wealthier visitors to the Caribbean island.

Raul Castro said that before being distributed, a copy of the guidelines was submitted to Fidel Castro for his consideration. Even though he is no longer president, he is still head of the Communist party.

By Esteban Israel

From: SwissInfo

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Cuba fires minister in charge of oil and nickel

Is this the first layoff of the 500.000?

Now ex-minister Yadira Garcia with ex-president Castro

Cuba fired Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia, in charge of the oil and nickel industries, on Sunday and said the first vice minister would stand in until a replacement was named.

A government communique said Garcia was let go due to "her deficiencies manifested, especially in poor control of resources destined for investment and the productive process."

First Vice Minister Thomas Benitez was named as a temporary replacement "until a new minister can be appointed," the statement said.

The ministry is also in charge of the cement industry and domestic pharmaceutical industry.

The Cuban oil industry is preparing to drill with foreign partners in the Gulf of Mexico next year and in partnership with Venezuela is developing its refining and other oil related infrastructure.

Unrefined nickel is Cuba's most important export at around 70,000 tonnes per year and a joint venture with Venezuela plans to add 60,000 tonnes of ferronickel by 2013.

Garcia was the last economic minister inherited by President Raul Castro in 2008 when he replaced ailing brother Fidel Castro.

Raul Castro replaced the other ministers in 2009.

From: Reuters Africa

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