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 4: Private farmers will be paid more as part of a plan to reduce imports of powdered milk, meat, beans and other staple foods, said the president of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), Orlando Lugo Fonte. “The government will import 20,000 tons of milk less, so that balance will have to be produced domestically. To that effect, they have approved the payment of 0.02 USD per liter of milk to dairy farmers," Lugo Fonte told farmers in Santiago de Cuba. (EER, 7/1/08)

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)