Energy 2008-- a news chronology

(From stories compiled by FOCAL, the Canadian Foundation for the Americas)

January 3: Cuba will begin building a new eolian park in the central region, with capacity to generate ten megabytes, local press informed. After intense wind studies by the ministry of science, technology, and environment, and Cuba’s Electrical Union, it was decided to build the park in the municipality of Corralillo, in Villa Clara province. This new work will add to another two already built on Turiguano Island, in the central province of Ciego Avila, and in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, as well as another under construction in Gibara, eastern province of Holguin. (Prensa Latina, 3/1/08)

January 17: The Camilo Cienfuegos refinery, in the Cuban central province of Cienfuegos, began processing crude oil in accordance with its implementation plan after its recent re-inauguration. Executives of this industry told reporters that the plant is refining its first 65,000 barrels of crude oil to obtain fuel oil, diesel, naphta, gasoline and turbo fuel. The technical staff of the refinery has also worked in the enlargement of storage tanks and they concluded the assembly of a geodesic dome in the third tank, with a capacity of 50,000 cubic meters. (Prensa Latina, 18/1/08)

January 18: Chinese and Cuban companies signed a contract to sell the Caribbean island six air-generators of 750 kilowatts each destined to the second Gibara eolian wind energy park. Located in north Holguin, this site will have a 1,500-kilowatt power. The document was inked during a ceremony at the Cuban embassy in Beijing, by Wu Gang, president of the Chinese Company GoldWind, and Lazaro Hernandez, trade director of the Cuban Company EnergoImport. GoldWind Science and Technology Corporation, manufacturer of the top-technology equipment, is the leading company in China in this renewable energies sector, and controls about 34 percent of the domestic market. (Prensa Latina, 18/1/08)

January 30: Brazil's state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) signed agreements with Cuba's Compania Cubana de Petroleo (Cupet) for cooperation in oil and gas exploration and production, research and development, and human resource cooperation. Studies also will be undertaken for agreements concerning facilities maintenance. The agreements give Brazil a foot in Cuba's energy door that Venezuela has, until recently, partially blocked. Petrobras, which has expertise in deepwater exploration and production, said the agreement "foresees the assessment of the offshore blocks in the Cuban sector of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as technical and economic analyses for the construction of a lubricant factory in Havana." Cuba hopes its exploration in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico will result in discoveries enabling the country to become self-sufficient in oil production. (Penn Energy, 30/1/08)

February 20: Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, said it will go ahead with studies for offshore oil exploration and the construction of a lubricant plant with Cuba's state-owned oil company. Castro's resignation won't alter plans, Petrobras Chief Executive Officer Jose Sergio Gabrielli said. Repsol YPF SA, Spain's largest oil company, is drilling for oil offshore and Toronto-based Sherritt began oil exploration in the country in 1992. (Bloomberg, 20/2/08)

March 6: Sherritt International Corp., the company producing oil and gas off Cuba's coast, said fourth- quarter profit increased 6.2 percent as oil prices rose. Net income rose to C$83.5 million ($84.6 million) from C$78.6 million a year earlier, Toronto-based Sherritt said in a statement. Sherritt gained from crude-oil prices that averaged 50 percent higher in the fourth quarter than a year earlier, boosting profit excluding some costs in the oil and gas business by 29 percent to C$65.6 million. The gain helped the company overcome falling profit in its metals unit as nickel prices slid. ``Strong oil prices, steady production and operating efficiencies helped drive profitability growth,'' Sherritt said in the statement. Nickel prices were ``lower than in the prior year, when stainless steel demand was stronger,'' the company said. Nickel is a key ingredient in stainless steel production. Sherritt mines and processes nickel in Cuba in a joint venture with the socialist government and produces oil and gas off the island's coast. The company also provides power to Cuba and is working on a 150-megawatt expansion at its Boca de Jaruco power plant, taking its total capacity in Cuba to 526 megawatts. Boosting the island's infrastructure will help protect the company from any change in the political regime, Sherritt has said. (Bloomberg, 6/3/08)

March 25: Turkish Energy & Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler said Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) could cooperate with Cuba in oil and natural gas exploration, as it does in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Libya. "TPAO is eager to join natural gas and oil exploration tenders in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador," Guler told reporters after meeting Marta Lomas Morales, the Cuban minister of Foreign Investments and Economic Cooperation, in capital Ankara. Guler said the corporation will also carry out research in Cuba. "We may cooperate with Cuba in oil and natural gas exploration," he said. “Turkey will set up a technical team to deal with joint energy projects with Cuba and it will visit Cuba in coming days," he also said. (AA, 25/3/08)

March 26: Turkish State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek and Cuban Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Marta Lomas Morales signed the 8th Term Joint Economic Commission Turkey-Cuba protocol. Under the protocol, the second loan --which was provided by Turkish Eximbank to Cuba and is worth of 15 million euros -- was opened to the use of Cuba. The total worth of the loan is 25 million euros. Cicek said that the protocol envisages cooperation between Turkey and Cuba to explore and produce natural gas and oil in third countries. He added that also the two countries will also start to cooperate in renewable energy, energy productivity, wind and sun energy, and biogas areas. (Turkish Press, 27/3/08)

March 30: In ten years, Cuba could be able to generate 500 MW by wind energy, not to mention the power that could be obtained from other renewable sources that are now being tested in the country. Manuel Menéndez, head of the Group of Coordination and Support of the Council of State, spoke about advances in the Comprehensive Program for the Development of Alternative Energy Sources at the conclusion of the Eighth International Workshop of the Cubasolar agency. “We are studying all possibilities, but we have opportunities to move forward in obtaining energy from biomass, sunlight and wind, among other sources,” he said. Regarding wind energy, measurements show favorable perspectives to continue the construction of wind farms in Gibara, Holguín, and in areas of Maisí, in Guantánamo. Menéndez said that the first wind measurements at 50 meters of height were recently finished in the northern coastline of Ciego de Ávila, within a series of research efforts that continue in this province. (Cuba Headlines, 30/3/08)

April 2: In 2009, the Colombian government will set up a small ethanol plant in Cuba with a production capacity of 5,000 litres a day, announced the minister of Agriculture, Andrés Felipe Arias. The official indicated that during the visit of a Cuban delegation it was agreed that “a pilot plant with Colombian technology would be installed.” Colombia is the second largest producer of biofuels in Latin America, after Brazil. Presently it produces a million litres of ethanol a day and 170,000 of biodiesel. (EFE, 2/4/08)

April 14: Cuba said it has saved more than $1 billion over two years and eliminated blackouts with its ''energy revolution'' that focuses on conservation and new power sources. Basic Industry Vice Minister Juan Manuel Presa said the savings occurred in 2006 and 2007, as the government replaced nine million regular light bulbs with energy-saving models and swapped 2.3 million old refrigerators for newer models. Presa spoke to the press during a gathering of the Petrocaribe regional energy group. (AP, 16/4/08)

April 14: Cuba achieved the first million tons of oil of the extraction plan expected for the first quarter this year, which means an increase in efficiency in the field. Director of Prospection of CUPET (Cuba Petroleo), Rafael Tenreyro, highlighted before national TV the importance of the figure due to the high price of crude of over $100 a barrel in world markets. He said that the country’s production forecast was achieved with enough volume to meet 50 percent of the domestic demand, as work was carried out using modern, efficient technologies also included in prospecting and drilling. Tenreyro announced that three new wells were drilled during the first quarter, with ongoing exploratory studies of land and sea, mainly seismic research, in northwestern Pinar del Rio province. (Prensa Latina, 14/4/08)

April 15: Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras is studying the possibility of oil exploitation in Cuba, according to Director of International Operations Jorge Zelada. Zelada said that the studies are based on a cooperation agreement signed with the Cuban Oil Company (CUPET) at the beginning of 2008, when the Brazilian president was in Cuba. The study will look at areas in Cuban waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico waters are divided in equal parts between Cuba, the US and Mexico and some of the best quality oil in the world is pumped in this area by US and Mexican companies, which makes the Cuban part, almost untouched, a good prospective for good findings. (ACN, 15/4/08)

April 16: Cuba's minister of basic industry said plans by a consortium of companies to drill in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters this year have been rescheduled for 2009, according to the country's state-run media. "In the Gulf of Mexico we are doing seismic studies and our perspective is we should resume drilling in the area next year," Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia was quoted by the official Juventud Rebelde newspaper as stating. Garcia said last year that drilling by a consortium led by Repsol-YPF of Spain would begin in 2008, if a rig could be rented. Interest in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico blocks picked up after Repsol discovered a small deposit of light oil in 2004 that was not commercially viable. Repsol has since joined forces with Norsk Hydro and ONGC Videsh of India. Seven foreign companies have signed exploration agreements with Cuban state oil company CUPET for 28 of the 59 blocks available in the deep Gulf of Mexico waters of Cuba's economic exclusion zone fronting the United States. (Reuters, 16/4/08)

April 23: In Cuba, analysts say that Cuban ethanol production will be limited to production from sugar by-product that does not affect the food sugar output. A Reuters report, quoting local sources, said it would be unthinkable for Raul Castro to increase ethanol production from food sugar, given Fidel Castro’s characterization of the practice as a “crime against humanity”. But it was not clear how Cuba would finance the conversion of its ethanol capacity to making cellulosic ethanol from bagasse. Currently, Cuba imports 85 percent of its food, and other analysts say that the intergrated product stream from revived ethanol production — including sugar, ethanol, paper, cattle feed — could revive Cuban agriculture in a country where former sugar plantations have been overrun by weed infestations.A Biofuels Digest news analysis was published on April 18 on the Castro regime’s secret buildup of sugar ethanol production capacity, while calling biofuels a “crime against humanity” in public comments. The potential for Cuba to produce between 2 billion and 3.2 billion gallons per year of sugar cane ethanol has been projected by industry analysts. (Biofuels Digest, 23/4/08)

April 30: Cuban President Raul Castro and visiting Panamanian President Martin Torrijos signed an energy cooperation agreement, local media reported. The agreement was signed during a ceremony at the Revolution Palace in Havana. The agreement aims to expand bilateral cooperation and exchanges in the rational and efficient use of energy, the use of renewable energy for promoting economic development, environmental protection and social equity. "We thank this project for keeping alive the solidary memory and spirit, for what represented Omar Torrijos (former Panamanian president), for the brotherhood between Cuba and Panama and between the Latin Americans," Torrijos said. The two countries also signed energy, fishing and other cooperative agreements. Cuba and Venezuela have already provided free eye operations to poor people across the region, including 20,000 Panamanians, through a program known as ''Operation Miracle,'' Torrijos said. (Xinhua, The Miami Herald, 1/5/08)

May 30: Brazilian state oil company Petrobras is studying a block in deep Cuban waters for possible exploration as part of broader cooperation with the Caribbean island, a top advisor to the company said. "We are planning to cooperate not only in exploration and production, but lubricants, refining and training," Andre Ghirardi told the press in Havana at a one-day meeting of Brazilian and Cuban businessmen. "We are working on the possibility of exploring a block in the Gulf of Mexico, but negotiations have not ended, they are advancing," he said. Interest in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico blocks has picked up as oil prices soar. Seven foreign companies have signed exploration agreements with Cuban state oil company CUPET for 28 of the 59 blocks available in the deep Gulf of Mexico waters of Cuba's economic exclusion zone fronting the United States. The US Geological Survey estimated the North Cuba basin could contain 4.6 billion barrels of oil, with a high-end potential of 9.3 billion barrels, and close to 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Ghirardi said negotiations to build a lubricants plant in Cuba were going well, though no agreement had been signed. (Reuters, 30/5/08)