20bn barrel oil discovery puts Cuba in the big league
• Self-reliance beckons for communist state
• Estimate means reserves are on a par with US


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A worker walks at an oil rig in Havana, Cuba. Photograph: Enrique De La Osa/Reuters

Friends and foes have called Cuba many things - a progressive beacon, a quixotic underdog, an oppressive tyranny - but no one has called it lucky, until now .

Mother nature, it emerged this week, appears to have blessed the island with enough oil reserves to vault it into the ranks of energy powers. The government announced there may be more than 20bn barrels of recoverable oil in offshore fields in Cuba's share of the Gulf of Mexico, more than twice the previous estimate.

If confirmed, it puts Cuba's reserves on par with those of the US and into the world's top 20. Drilling is expected to start next year by Cuba's state oil company Cubapetroleo, or Cupet.

"It would change their whole equation. The government would have more money and no longer be dependent on foreign oil," said Kirby Jones, founder of the Washington-based US-Cuba Trade Association. "It could join the club of oil exporting nations."

"We have more data. I'm almost certain that if they ask for all the data we have, (their estimate) is going to grow considerably," said Cupet's exploration manager, Rafael Tenreyro Perez.

Havana based its dramatically higher estimate mainly on comparisons with oil output from similar geological structures off the coasts of Mexico and the US. Cuba's undersea geology was "very similar" to Mexico's giant Cantarell oil field in the Bay of Campeche, said Tenreyro.

A consortium of companies led by Spain's Repsol had tested wells and were expected to begin drilling the first production well in mid-2009, and possibly several more later in the year, he said.

Cuba currently produces about 60,000 barrels of oil daily, covering almost half of its needs, and imports the rest from Venezuela in return for Cuban doctors and sports instructors. Even that barter system puts a strain on an impoverished economy in which Cubans earn an average monthly salary of $20.

Subsidised grocery staples, health care and education help make ends meet but an old joke - that the three biggest failings of the revolution are breakfast, lunch and dinner - still does the rounds. Last month hardships were compounded by tropical storms that shredded crops and devastated coastal towns.

"This news about the oil reserves could not have come at a better time for the regime," said Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, a Cuba energy specialist at the University of Nebraska.

However there is little prospect of Cuba becoming a communist version of Kuwait. Its oil is more than a mile deep under the ocean and difficult and expensive to extract. The four-decade-old US economic embargo prevents several of Cuba's potential oil partners - notably Brazil, Norway and Spain - from using valuable first-generation technology.

"You're looking at three to five years minimum before any meaningful returns," said Benjamin-Alvarado.

Even so, Cuba is a master at stretching resources. President Raul Castro, who took over from brother Fidel, has promised to deliver improvements to daily life to shore up the legitimacy of the revolution as it approaches its 50th anniversary.

Cuba's unexpected arrival into the big oil league could increase pressure on the next administration to loosen the embargo to let US oil companies participate in the bonanza and reduce US dependency on the middle east, said Jones. "Up until now the embargo did not really impact on us in a substantive, strategic way. Oil is different. It's something we need and want."


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/18/cuban-oil

CHINA INTERESTED IN CUBAN OIL REFINERY EXPANSION
CIENFUEGOS, CUBA, June 17 (NNN-ACN) - Chinese Ambassador to Cuba Liu Yuqin said her country had great interest in large-scale investments such as in the Camilo Cienfuegos Oil Refinery in its second phase expansion to refine 150,000 barrels per day.

She referred to the approach of Chinese companies to develop basic engineering in the growth of the industry and the Chinese company won the tender to take part in the 19 projects in Petrochemical Pole in the central Cuban province.

Financial support and sophisticated technology by Chinese companies like Sinopec, Wuhu HQCEC are of great significance to undertake the new construction programmes at the Cienfuegos Refinery and other works that are attached to the industrial process of fuel, industry source said.

With the expansion of the “Camilo Cienfuegos” Cuba seeks greater efficiency, to reduce waste and increase the number of added-value products all within these projects in progress since 2008, scheduled to conclude in 2014.

Yuqin said China is Cuba's second trading partner after Venezuela and as an example she mentioned commercial trading for over US$2 billion between 2007 and 2008.

She added that last year, despite the global economic crisis, commerce between the two countries was of about US$1.5 billion.

In addition to the refinery, the Chinese ambassador visited the Simon Bolivar neigbourhood, built with the PetroCasas technique, which was inaugurated nearly three years ago during the Summit of Petrocaribe in Cienfuegos.

Rolando Díaz González, president of the Provincial Assembly and Iran Millan, director of the Office of Curator of the City explained to the diplomat and her accompanying delegation the development of the various social and economic spheres in the province.http://namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=124007

CUBA, RUSSIA BOOST OIL COOPERATION
HAVANA, June 26 (NNN-Prensa Latina): Cuba and Russia have boosted their energy cooperation by opening a Havana office of the Russian JCS Zarubezhneft oil company to help increase production in the island.

Cuban Basic Industry Minister Manuel Marrero said the two countries recently signed a contract to recover secondary reserves in the former Boca de Jaruco oil field, located in the country's western zone.

Another four accords for land and sea risk exploration now being implemented were signed in 2009, Marerro told the Cuban News Agency.

Moscow's Ambassador to Havana Mijail Kaminin said his country's negotiations with Cuba confirm the Russian business sector's confidence in the capacity and professionalism of its Cuban counterpart.

The Caribbean nation extracted 2,731,000 tons of oil last year, a little less than three million extracted in 2008, according to reports from the National Statistics Office.http://namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=125003

OIL DRILLING ADVANCES IN CUBA
HAVANA, Aug 21 (NNN-Prensa Latina) -- Oil extraction workers in the eastern Cuban province of Matanzas have obtained 886,000 tons of crude to date, exceeding the amount obtained in the same period in 2009.

Adding the accompanying gas, the total hydrocarbon equivalent obtained to date is 1.110 million tons, according to the Cuban oil company, Empresa de Perforación y Extracción de Petróleo del Centro (EPEP-C).

According to a Granma newspaper, this achievement represents a considerable part of national production and is an invaluable contribution to the Cuban economy.

EPEC-C officials highlighted the decisive contribution of new extended-reach oil wells in the west and close to the north of the deposit, the site of the biggest explosion in production and prospects for development.

Production results are also due to a ratio of exploitation of over 97 percent, revealing the high level of efficiency, and to the process of modernizing technology.

The new investments will permit the company to obtain over one million tons of oil by the end of 2010, the highest figure in the last 16 years. http://namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=130912

Cuba leases to bring deepwater drilling within 50 miles of Key West
Many firms ready to deal with Cuba on oil exploration
By next summer, a huge semi-submersible oil rig is expected to be stationed about 40 to 50 miles from Key West for deepwater drilling to explore for oil in the Straits of Florida.

The rig is part of a vast international business operation. The vessel was made in China, it’s owned by the Italian oil company Eni SpA, and it will be operated by Repsol, Spain’s oil and natural gas firm, which is also leasing the area known as the Jaguey from Cuba to look for oil.

The Scarabeo 9 rig, with a crew of about 220 people, will be drilling about 6,500 feet below the surface, more than a thousand feet deeper than the Macondo Prospect well — more commonly known as the DeepWater Horizon, for the drilling rig stationed in the Gulf of Mexico before it exploded and sank in April. Over the spring and summer, the Macondo well became the site of the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Great Britain, home of the company in charge of the Macondo well, British Petroleum, enjoys good diplomatic relations with the United States. Cuba, in contrast, has had a 50-year trade embargo imposed by the United States.

In the DeepWater Horizon disaster, bureaucratic red tape is at least partially to blame for the delay in cleaning up the nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil that gushed from the well before it was capped in July.

The U.S. trade embargo against Cuba would prevent U.S. companies, in most cases, from helping with cleanup efforts in the event of an accident on the Scarabeo 9 rig. Even if exceptions were granted, there would at least be significant delays in aide coming from the United States, according to Lee Hunt, president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, a Texas-based trade group. He said help would have to come from countries farther away.

U.S. parts banned

The trade embargo also prevents Cuba from using technologies made in the United States, used here and in other countries, that are designed to stop or minimize blowouts like the DeepWater Horizon disaster, Hunt said.

“If there was a blowout in the Jagüey, there would be significant delays in getting a rig shipped in here from Asia or Europe, under the current embargo situation,” Hunt said. “One impact of the embargo is it prevents companies from buying publicly available parts and supplies that are critical to the operation of equipment like blowout preventers.”

The Scarabeo 9 rig has some parts made in the United States, but because they make up less than 10 percent, the rig can circumvent at least three pieces of federal legislation dealing with the embargo, said Jorge Piñon, a visiting research fellow at the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

Hunt recently returned from a visit to Cuba, where he invited the country’s state-run oil company, Cubapetroleo, or CUPET, to join the IADC. He is hopeful the State Department will give the organization an exception to the law that bans countries under U.S. sanctions from joining U.S. trade groups. The National Iranian Oil Company received an exception to join the drilling association, Hunt said.

Hunt is also hopeful that the inevitability of Cuba’s offshore drilling program will ease some restrictive aspects of the U.S. embargo. He said that the more the U.S. government and oil industry cooperate with Cuba on its drilling and exploration aspirations, the safer environmentally the Gulf of Mexico will be.

“Our goal is for all countries to operate safely in one Gulf. We don’t want to see the Jagüey become another Macondo or Ixtoc,” Hunt said, referring to the two worst environmental disasters to affect the Gulf of Mexico. The Ixtoc spill in 1979 gushed 3 million barrels of oil that fouled the lower Texas coast.

Piñon said that ultimately, U.S. company Cameron Products will make the blowout preventers for the Scarabeo 9. Manufacturers in other counties make the same equipment, but Cameron’s location and prices for goods and services make it more appealing than international competitors. The Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control would have to approve the agreement because of the embargo, Piñon said.

“Folks are looking at blowout preventers made in the U.S. but with foreign steel [and other materials], but again when the time comes we believe the U.S. will allow the sale,” Piñon said.

The amount of oil in the Jagüey and 17 additional blocks Cuba plans to lease for exploration depends on who you ask. The Cuban government and Repsol officials think there are 20 billion barrels of oil within the country’s offshore economic zone. But the U.S. Geological Survey puts the number at a much lower 4 billion barrels.

“I’ll leave that to those guys to argue over. That’s not my area of expertise,” Hunt said.

Repsol found non-commercial crude off the Cuban coast in 2004, which was enough for the company to continue its business relationship with the Cuban government.

Changing drill debate

In the United States, drilling off the coasts has been a contentious issue for decades, and it became even more hairier politically since the DeepWater Horizon disaster.

The Obama administration placed a moratorium on all deepwater drilling in U.S. waters in the spill’s aftermath. Some want the ban to continue, while others, including the oil industry and several Gulf state politicians, are urging President Obama to lift the suspension, saying it’s hurting employment in their states.

But Hunt and Piñon said much of the debate over whether the United States should open more of its coastline for oil and natural-gas exploration will change once drilling operations begin in nearby Cuba, especially if those explorations bear significant finds.

“Cuba is a sovereign country whether we like it or not, and can conduct oil exploration within its exclusive economic zone,” Piñon said.

Cuba, he said, has little choice but to look for oil, especially since it depends mostly on imports from Venezuela, which Piñon called “unstable.”

While Cuba’s CUPET is ill-equipped to carry out drilling operations, many of the companies seeking to lease blocks off Cuba are veterans of offshore drilling, Piñon said. He added that the DeepWater Horizon incident was a game-changer in terms of following safety procedures.

Other companies planning to follow Repsol’s lead are Statoil of Norway, ONGC of India, Petrôleus of Venezuela, Brazil’s Petrobras, Russia’s Gazprom and Petronas of Malaysia, according to several media reports.

“Cuba’s national oil company does not have the experience and/or technology for deepwater exploration,” Piñon said in an e-mail. “But I believe that the foreign operators operating in Cuba will now conduct business by the strictest rules in the book. From this point of view, the Deepwater Horizon incident helped us. [Repsol] can not risk the reputation and cost of another catastrophic incident.”

Hunt said he’s also heard from people concerned that the rig may be unsafe because it was made in China.

“One thing I’d like to respond to is the horrific response to the Chinese deep drilling. There are five rigs in the Gulf of Mexico right now that were made in China. The Chinese are not novices at this,” he said.

http://media.keysnet.com/smedia/2010/09/09/13/PinonDrillingplatformsystem.standalone.prod_affiliate.143.jpg
A diagram shows equipment involved in deepwater oil exploration off the coast of Cuba and refining facilities in the country. (Graphic courtesy of Jorge Piñon)http://www.keysnet.com/2010/09/09/256493/cuba-leases-to-bring-deepwater.html

^^will be a huge contribution to Cuba's economy :okay:

CUBA TO TRY ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SYSTEM IN 2011
SANTIAGO DE CUBA (CUBA), Sept 25 (NNN-ACN) -- A pilot micro solar energy system will be connected to the national power system in Cuba by the beginning of 2011 in an effort to reduce oil consumption by taking advantage of that renewable source.


Ruben Ramos, director of the Solar Energy Research Center, told ACN that the micro system will function as a pilot institution looking to achieve energetic independence and sustainability faced with high oil prices and its possible exhaustion.

According to Ramos, a 5-kW peak photovoltaic system will be connected to the national system including a monophasic inverter of four kW peak.

Likewise, an automatic system will be installed to monitor and register data that will allow the assessment of the energetic performance during a the two-year trial period, taking into account the savings to the total power expenses.

The institution will be also used as a training center for specialists, technicians and students to continue strengthening the knowledge about the alternative technology.

Cuba’s Solar Energy Research Center was created in 1984 for the study of solar radiation and the coordination and implementation of technologies for the use of solar energy across the country.

The center is equipped with top-notch laboratories to lead researches on photovoltaic parts and components adapted to tropical weather conditions. http://namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=134380

Cuba to add new docks, terminal at Cienfuegos port
Cuba will build three additional loading docks and a terminal large enough to accommodate modern supertankers by 2014 at its port in Cienfuegos, part of the communist government's effort with Venezuela to rehabilitate and modernize the area's oil refinery.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a self-described socialist and close friend of Fidel Castro, attended the December 2007 re-inauguration of the Soviet-era facility on central Cuba's southern coast, and since then it has refined 55 million barrels.

Cuba and Venezuelan plan to expand capacity there to 150,000 barrels refined per day and the new berths and terminal will ensure tankers carrying more oil can come and go more freely, said Luis Medina, director of Cuba's national port authority, at a news conference Friday in Havana, 185 miles (300 kilometers) northwest of Cienfuegos.

Chavez's government ships more than 100,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba in exchange for island doctors who provide free medical care in his country and other social services. The expanded capacity at Cienfuegos will allow Venezuela to ship more petroleum products that can be refined on the island.

Cuba independently operates its largest oil field, the Varadero field discovered by Russian scientists in 1971, but the communist government relies on energy companies from Canada, Spain, Norway, India, Malaysia and China for other drilling operations.

The government has laid out zones in the Gulf of Mexico where private energy companies, mostly from Canada and Europe, have said they could one day drill deep-water test wells searching for crude.

A 2004 test well by a Spanish company was not considered commercially viable, however, and Washington's 48-year-old trade embargo prohibits U.S. companies from investing in Cuban oil exploration and production, even though the island's Gulf waters are close to the Florida coast.

A meeting of U.S., Mexican and Cuban scientists wrapped up Wednesday in Sarasota, Florida, with an outline for a plan to better protect the Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean through collaborative management and conservation.

It includes actions that scientists in each country will undertake to conserve coral reefs, marine mammals, sea turtles and shark and other fish populations. Examples include a regional monitoring protocol for sea turtles to make sure results are compatible among nations and continued research expeditions focused on sharks.http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-10-01/business/24108750_1_cienfuegos-sea-turtles-cuban-scientists

Campaign for Rational Energy Use in Cuba
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Updating the Cuban economic model includes adopt capable measures than can guarantee the austere and rational use of energy resources, Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes stated.

During a meeting with executives from the national electric company and the administrative councils of the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, Valdez proposed to generalize experiences that avoid overspending and allow plans to be met.

The vice president said that waste and violations of established policies for reducing daily electricity consumption should be heavily penalized, including with power cuts to workplaces that consume more than the established plan, Granma newspaper reported.

Workplace energy committees need to drastically change their performance, because 90 percent of the fuel saved is the result of more efficient power generation, not effective contingency plans, said Tomas Benitez, first deputy minister of basic industry.

Several eastern Cuban government agencies went over their energy consumption plans in late October without the necessary increased in productivity, said Raul Garcia, general director of the national electric company.

The situation is aggravated due to a 4.8 percent hike in residential elecricity consumption compared to the same period in 2009, Garcia said. http://www.ahora.cu/english/sections/national/3046-campaign-for-rational-energy-use-in-cuba.html

Campaign for Rational Energy Use in Cuba
http://www.ahora.cu/english/sections/national/3046-campaign-for-rational-energy-use-in-cuba.html

JUST HILARIOUS, specially since3 the cuban government, or should I say "dictatorship?" has recently announced a 200% spike in every cuban's electricity bill. This is probably the strategy behind the so called "Campaign for Rational Energy Use in Cuba" which hakz2007 so ignorantly quoted. HOW MUCH MORE will Cubans stand cross-handedly while the dictatorship steals their money even when they have no money left??? :ohno::bash:

Solar Energy or Right to Life
The Cuban people receive as an average, solar energy equivalent to 50 million tons of oil each day and in economic terms this means that its energetic value is more than all of the hydrocarbon consumed by the country during a period of five years.

In other words, Cuba absorbs 1 800 times more sun than the oil spent on transportation, agriculture, industry, trade, social services, homes and other sectors, without breaking the thermal balance of the planet.

The cost of taking advantage of renewable sources is much less that the so called conventional that generates contamination and accelerate climate change endangering life on the planet.

Another element in favor is the little amount of area needed for the supply of production processes and does not take large territorial spaces in the agricultural sector or other important activities related with sustainability and development.

The truth is that the dispersion of the natural rays does not constitute a negative factor, but rather makes possible the production of electricity in a decentralized way and close to the area where it will be used.

For Luis Berriz Perez, President of the NGO Cuba Solar, the construction of plants implies that any area could be supplied in its totality by solar panels and wind energy or both.

Berriz Perez did not hesitate to affirm that the Sun´s rays was used as the main source of energy in the past, today and will continue to be used in the future. http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2010/1220-solar-energy-right-life.htm

Cuba-U.S. Drilling Pact Should Follow BP Gulf Spill, Panel Says
President Barack Obama should press Cuba to accept tougher offshore-drilling standards as the Cuban government prepares to seek oil 50 miles from Florida, the co- head of a panel on the BP Plc spill said.

The best way to influence Cuba may be through Mexico, which has favorable relations with that government, William Reilly, co-chairman of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, said today at a U.S. Senate energy committee hearing. Mexico’s recommendations “would be taken seriously” by the Cuban government, said Reilly, who described the two countries’ offshore-development plans as “worrisome.”

Cuba has leased tracts 50 miles off the Florida coast and has plans for seven exploratory wells by 2014, the commission said in a Jan. 11 report. Petroleos Mexicanos, Latin America’s largest oil producer, intends to auction deep-water contracts as early as 2012.

“Mexico would very much like a treaty,” Reilly said. “We recommend an agreement among the three countries on best practices.”

Earlier this month, the commission called for “urgent reform” of government rules and oil-industry practices to prevent a repeat of disasters similar to BP’s spill. An April 20 blowout at BP’s Macondo well killed 11 workers, injured 17, destroyed Transocean Ltd.’s $365 million Deepwater Horizon rig and spewed crude for 87 days.

Bipartisan Panel

Reilly, a Republican and former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and commission co-chairman Bob Graham, a former Democratic senator and Florida governor, appeared today before Congress for the first time since the release of the group’s final report.

The bipartisan panel, created in May by President Barack Obama, began work following the disaster aboard the rig leased by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. The panel concluded that systemic management failures at the London-based company and its main contractors caused the catastrophe, showing a need for an overhaul of the industry and government rules.

Reilly said he has met with Mexico’s offshore-drilling regulator and that U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has discussed the issue with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Repsol YPF SA, Spain’s largest oil company, and OAO Gazprom Neft, the oil unit of Russia’s state-controlled gas producer, “have either drilled exploratory and production wells or are likely soon to do so,” according to the commission’s report.

National Objectives

“Potential drilling sites are close enough to waters and land within U.S. jurisdiction -- Cuba’s mainland lies only 90 miles from Florida’s coast and the contemplated wells only 50 miles -- that if an accident like the Deepwater Horizon spill occurs, fisheries, coastal tourism, and other valuable U.S. natural resources could be put at great risk,” according to the report.

“The U.S. objectives should be to prevent drilling by companies unwilling or unprepared to meet the high safety standards essential to extracting oil and gas resources responsibly and to have a verification process to ensure compliance,” the report concluded. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-26/cuba-u-s-drilling-pact-should-follow-bp-gulf-spill-panel-says.html

Cuba reports oil and gas output unchanged
Most new wells are drilled vertically from the shore from two to seven kilometers out to sea.

Cuba drilled 25 wells in 2010 and plans 20 this year, the report said.

Output has stagnated for nearly a decade as old wells are exhausted and new ones do no more than take up the slack.

The poor-quality oil is burned in modified power plants and factories.

Some domestic oil is also processed at a joint venture refinery with Venezuela in the Cienfuegos province, and then exported to area countries.

Since 2006, Cuba has shipped small amounts of the crude to Asia.

(Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by David Gregorio) http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN2529045820110125?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Fourth Wind Farm Starts Operating in Cuba
According to ACN: The Gibara II, the fourth wind farm established in the country, started operating to its full capacity on Monday. Made up of six wind generators, Gibara II can produce 4.5 megawatts per hour total, using the speed of the wind blowing in this area that reaches more than 4 meters/second, Trabajadores newspaper reported. Looking for ways to reduce costs on power generating and exploit environmentally friendly energy alternative sources, four wind farms are already operating in Cuba. Holguin is also home to the Gibara I wind farm which generated 10,000 megawatts last year saving the country 3,931 tons of oil in 2010. The two other wind farms are located in the Cayo Coco key, located off north Ciego de Avila province, and Isle of Youth. http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4837884

Cuba continues to provide Venezuela with electricity know-how
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Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas met with Electric Energy Minister Alí Rodríguez Araque Monday in Caracas to assess the state of 23 one-year old cooperation agreements on electricity, and to announce new projects.

Cabrisas was accompanied by Vicente Delaó, general director of Cuba’s Unión Eléctrica.

New projects include construction of an assembly plant for transformers and the creation of a “Latin American Institute for Energy Research and Studies” to train experts and technicians. The transformer plant could include additional partners who would like to assemble their products in Venezuela and export to other member countries of the ALBA trade and integration agreement, Rodríguez said.

Cuba last year provided and began to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of generator clusters in Venezuela, helping the South American country overcome a power shortage. Under a separate, $280 million, agreement expected to conclude in July, Cuba is also refurbishing old thermoelectric plants. “Many” of the Cuban projects are “80 to 90 percent complete,” Rodríguez said, according to a press release by the Venezuelan electricity ministry.

The Venezuelan government just announced it plans to invest $21 billion to strengthen electricity generation, transmission and distribution in the greater Caracas area. The four-year investment program would increase the country’s generation capacity by 15,000 mw, or more than one-third. Some 7,000 mw would be gained by refurbishing existing capacities.

After the meeting with Cabrisas, Rodríguez mentioned a 50-mw unit Cuban engineers refurbished in an existing power plant at Las Mayas, in Miranda state near the capital. Work on the unit, mothballed for 20 years, began in March 2010 with 22 Cuban and 27 Venezuelan technicians. Cabrisas and Rodríguez toured the plant Jan. 22.

Cuba “has gained formidable experience in the maintenance and rehabilitation of electric installations,” Rodríguez said after touring the plant, according to Venezuela’s El Mundo.

The electricity minister suggested that Cuban engineers and technicians will provide troubleshooting services.

“The participation of the Cuban compañeros in Venezuela has had the great virtue that they already act, together with us, as one team,” Rodríguez said, according to the press release. “They’re present where problems arise that need to be corrected, aside from the plans that have progressed in a sustained way.”http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/01/25/cuba-continues-to-provide-venezuela-with-electricity-know-how/

Chinese VP Xi Jinping Corroborates Cuba’s Advances in the Sphere of Energy
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Matanzas, Cuba, Jun 6.- Xi Jinping, Politburo Standing Committee member of the CPC Central Committee, corroborated on Monday the island’s development in the field of energy, during a tour of oil areas.

Accompanied by Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdes, member of the Politburo of the Cuban Communist Party, Jinping, also vice-president of the People’s Republic of China, visited the Camarioca Norte 100 oil well, at some 130 kilometers east of Havana.More:http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5917:chinese-vp-xi-jinping-corroborates-cubas-advances-in-the-sphere-of-energy&catid=2:cuba&Itemid=14

si este es un hilo del foro de cuba, y el idioma oficial de cuba es el español, porque caraxx se ponen todas las noticias en ingles?

Cuba to Increase Oil Processing Capacity
Havana, Aug 7.- The vice president of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Asdrubal Chavez, commented in this capital on the importance of investments in Cuba to increase the country's oil processing capacity.

In statements to Cuban television, Chavez said that the company Cubapetroleo was setting up to expand the Cienfuegos and the Hermanos Diaz refineries, the latter in Santiago de Cuba, and to design a new plant in Matanzas.

Cienfuegos´s oil refinery, where expansion works, is scheduled for completion in late 2014, "currently processes 65,000 barrels of oil and we expect to reach 150,000 barrels in the future," the PDVSA vice president noted. He pointed out that Venezuela's oil reserves are the largest in the world and they will strengthen Latin American and Caribbean integration.

"We want these reserves to translate into real benefits for peoples, to improve their quality of life, fight poverty, eradicate inequalities and complement their economies," he said.http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6595:cuba-to-increase-oil-processing-capacity&catid=2:cuba&Itemid=14

Cuba Promotes Wind Energy Studies

In the latter half of 2011, Cuban experts will promote research on how to better use wind as a renewable energy source and reduce damage to the environment, a local television news program reported.

According to reports, the research is focused on determining the most feasible site for building a new wind park, preferably in the country's northeastern zone, which has the best wind currents.

Equipment has been installed around the island to determine wind speed, altitude, and average temperatures, the source stated.

In the last three and a half years, two wind parks in Gibara, in the northeastern province of Holguin, delivered about 30,000 megawatts to the national electricity system, the note stated.

That production saved Cuba more than 5,800 tons of oil and avoided the emission into the atmosphere of 21,000 tons of carbon dioxide.http://www.ahora.cu/english/sections/national/4736-cuba-promotes-wind-energy-studies.html

Cuba working with Vietnam on biogas
The Hanoi-based Biogas Technology Center is setting up two midsize biogas generators in Cuba, official news agency ACN reported.

Larger-scale biogas technology allows to generate electricity with methane from agricultural waste. In 2010, biogas plants helped Cuba save the equivalent of 2,000 tons of oil. The fossil fuel savings will allow Cuba to sell tradable CO2 certificates worth millions of dollars per year.

The two 300-cubic meter plants donated by Vietnam are expected to begin operating before the end of the year. They will be sufficient to provide electricity for a small community, a Cuban expert with Biomas Cuba said during an alternative-energy conference in Las Tunas. The ACN report didn’t say where the two generators are being built. More: http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/10/07/cuba-working-with-vietnam-on-biogas/

Petróleo versus embargo
http://www.elheraldo.hn/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/fotogalerias/revistas/default/embargo/oro-negro/185482-1-esl-MX/Oro-negro_450_339.jpg

Cuba abre cada vez más espacios comerciales al mundo. Una enorme plataforma de prospección petrolera marina llegó esta semana a las tibias aguas al norte de La Habana para abrir un pozo exploratorio en el lecho continental, con el cual la isla lanza un ambicioso plan de hacerse un país rico con los hidrocarburos.

La plataforma Scarabeo-9 era visible desde el malecón de La Habana en ruta a su emplazamiento final, situado a unos 50 kilómetros al norte de la capital y a 90 kilómetros al sur de Cayo Hueso.Read more (http://www.elheraldo.hn/Publicaciones/Revistas/Siempre/Crimenes11/Petroleo-versus-embargo)

^^ Si Cuba ahora "habre cada vez mas espacios comerciales al mundo" es porque al fidelito dictador se le ocurrio hace mucho tiempo hacerse el duro y conservar la hegemonia del poder en sus manos cerrando la inversion extrangera. Por eso es que Cuba esta tan mal ahora... pero mira bien como cambian las cosas: raulito, su hermanita querida, despues de tanto "abajo el imperialismo" y "viva la revolucion" ha vendido sus ideales para habrir a Cuba a la inversion extrangera por tal de que el pueblo no se muera de hambre mas de lo que esta y se tire para la calle a buscarlo y cortarle los testiculos... En fin, Cuba se habre porque si el pueblo llega a sufrir un poco mas de su limite, ahi se va a armar la guerra de los dos mundos... y muchos "revolucionarios" van a salir heridos. Moraleja: si no quieres vivir estresado y preocupado porque un pueblo entero puede levantarse y cobrarte tus cuentas pendientes, tanto a ti como a tu familia, entonces, no te hagas dictador.

Saludos.

Where is the oil now? I heard Russia was trying desperately to look for it, but I doubt they will find much, if they ever do.

This really looks to me as a slap in the face to an ever-faltering dictatorship. They will continue to sell their doctors and nurses to Venezuela in exchange for oil, they will not be economically better, but worse off. Huge amounts of people (170 thousand this year) working for the state will go unemployed. More people in the street with free time will ferment social unrest. We see it happening today. The dictatorship has for too long played with fire, and now they must suffer the backlash of their policies and errors, in the face of a growing number of democratic activists and a disenchanted, rebellious youth.

Cuba unveils first biodiesel plant
(Shanghai Daily/Xinhua, July 17)


HAVANA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's first production factory designed to turn seed oil into green fuel opened Monday, with the capacity of producing more than 100 tons of biofuel a year.

The small factory was funded by the Cuban government and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, said Jose Sotolongo, director of the Center for Applied Technology for Sustainable Development in the eastern province of Guantanamo. It will produce more than 100 tons of biofuel a year, Sotolongo said, adding that the biofuel source is the oil-rich jatropha seeds, which are "toxic for human consumption" but ideal for fuel.

The first few liters of fuel have already been used "successfully" to run agricultural machinery in the area, added Sotolongo. The biofuel made from the jatropha seeds instead of edible vegetable oils, such as sunflower and soybean, marked "a major change in the widespread paradigm in global biofuel production," Sotolongo said.

more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.asp?id=83515

The rich promise of Cuba's diverse energy partnerships
Cuba's hopes of an oil bonanza, offering the possibility of not only meeting its own needs but of exporting to regional partners, were dashed earlier this year.

After three failed attempts to access the 5 to 9 billion barrels of oil believed to lie in Cuban coastal waters, the Chinese-built Scarabeo 9 rig, leased first by Spanish company Repsol, then Malaysia's Petronas, followed by Venezuela's PDVSA, left the Caribbean. Read more (http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/127699)

Proyecto Biomasa Marabu (CUBA)


Fase de inicio del proyecto de producción de energía eléctrica en centrales azucareros a partir del uso de la planta invasiva Marabú, llevado a cabo por SODePAZ y la ong cubana ACTAF y cofinanciado por la Comisión Europea y la Junta de Andalucía.

La Habana, Cuba - Aunque se han limpiado en el país hasta la fecha más de 100 mil hectáreas de marabú, todavía falta más de un 40 por ciento del total del área plagada en Cuba por ese arbusto.

De acuerdo con criterios de funcionarios del Grupo Nacional de la Agricultura Urbana y Suburbana, hay que eliminar esa planta de forma manual y mecanizada, así como introducir en las tierras productivas rebaños de cabras, para evitar que rebroten los retoños del marabú.


Los entendidos indican que es fundamental que cada municipio de Cuba disponga de una entidad reforestada, incremente el uso de los suelos, organice fincas integrales para la obtención de semillas de alto rendimiento y aumente la utilización de yuntas de bueyes, carretas y carretones.

En virtud de producir alimentos, también es imprescindible rescatar las áreas que todavía no poseen el cultivo semiprotegido y lograr que la totalidad de las granjas urbanas sean rentables.

...

^^ No afectaria esto la calidad con la que trabajan los centrales azucareros? En Cuba todos los planes que hace el regimen los hace sin pensar que problemas pueden surgir de inventar tantas maranas. Ya de por si han reducido la cantidad de centrales grandemente y los pocos que funcionan se estan sobreexplotando y estan bastante descuidados.

Ademas, como van hacer rentables "la totalidad de las granjas urbanas," cuando la mayoria de estas todabia estan bajo control estatal? Deberian de privatizarlas y dejar que individuos subsistan de la tierra y por su propio emprendimiento las hagan utiles.

Pregunto, todas las decisiones que se toman en cuba son mal intencionadas, o tienen un fin oscuro? cada noticia "buena" siempre alguien la descarta o duda de su veracidad... Que manía!

Bueno, pues tenemos el ejemplo de la claria, un pez que introducieron en Cuba no se por que razon (me inmagino diciendo que daria suficiente alimento a los cubanos o algo asi) y ahora resulta ser un pez altamente invasivo que hasta sale del agua y puede sobrevivir por largo tiempo fuera de ella y hasta se ha comido gallinas y otros animales. Ahora el pez se come a la fauna auctoctona.

Ademas, lee esto:
Yo creo que provee un sintesis acertado de las cosas que el regimen, intencionalmente o involuntariamente, ha causado solo en el sector del medioambiente en Cuba.



"La destrucción de nuestro patrimonio ecológico comenzó poco después del triunfo de la revolución en 1959, con la implementación de la reforma agraria, la agricultura estatal y la colectivización forzada. Al convertirse el Comandante en el único terrateniente del país, no quedó nadie a quien responder por los fallos, la mala administración, la negligencia, y la total ignorancia del uso adecuado y la explotación sostenible de los recursos vitales. Esta degradación medioambiental se intensificó durante el llamado “período especial” de los años 90’s, cuando la maltrecha economía del régimen sufrió los efectos del fin del subsidio soviético, y Castro anunció que los recursos naturales del país serían utilizados “al máximo posible”, en anticipación de un colapso económico y la implementación del plan Opción Cero, provocando un giro hacia un ecologismo marxista y más radical.


De acuerdo a datos del Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (PNUMA), el daño provocado en el medio ambiente cubano es palpable: la erosión y salinización de los suelos; la contaminación de ríos y bahías; la desaparición de una buena parte de nuestra flora y fauna, y sobre todo, la deforestación. La bahía de La Habana es una de las más contaminadas del mundo, afectada por hidrocarburos, el plomo y el ácido clorhídrico. El oriental río Cauto, el más largo de la isla, ya no puede contener vida propia: es una cloaca de de aguas salobres y envenenadas. Otros ríos como el Almendares, el Zaza, el San Pedro, el Toa y el Cuyagüateje tienen sistemas regnícolas destruidos por el vertimiento de residuos urbanos y agropecuarios. El famoso Salto del Hanabanilla se ha secado totalmente, y ya no existe. Las matanceras Cuevas de Bellamar, otrora orgullo de la espeleología cubana, han sido convertidas en depósitos de armamento, explosivos y productos químicos, alterando su delicado ecosistema. La hermosa playa de Varadero, una de las más bellas del mundo, ha visto la extracción de miles de toneladas de su fina arena para ser usada en la construcción.


Creado en 1994, el Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente (CITMA), dirigido por la veterinaria Rosa Elena Simeón hasta la muerte de ésta en el 2005, ha sido el organismo encargado de dirigir y ejecutar el abusivo programa ambientalista del régimen, despilfarrando y arruinando nuestra ecología.


Al igual que los ríos, las playas y el manto freático, los bosques de Cuba han sufrido las consecuencias fatales de una política ecológica brutal y chapucera. En 1959, el país poseía un gran número de regiones boscosas, entre ellas la Sierra Maestra, la Sierra del Escambray, la península de Guanacabibes, la Cordillera de los Órganos y la Ciénaga de Zapata. Los abundantes árboles eran un estorbo para las nuevas técnicas de la agricultura estatal de 1960, provocando una tala indiscriminada, sin tener en cuenta el inmenso daño ecológico que esto podría causar.


En octubre de 1967, cerca de Bayamo, comenzó la mayor destrucción de bosques naturales y maderas preciosas en la historia de la isla. La llamada “Brigada Invasora Che Guevara” utilizó tanques de guerra y explosivos que, con fuertes cadenas, arrasaron bosques enteros. Este criminal proceso de deforestación destruyó miles de árboles que eran también refugio de faunas autóctonas que desaparecieron junto con los árboles. Más tarde, durante el período especial, muchos de los pocos árboles que aún quedaban fueron sacrificados para fines energéticos. Cuba, según reportes del PNUMA, es ahora el cuarto país que más riquezas forestales ha perdido en el mundo.

En los últimos 48 años, unas veinte especies de pájaros cubanos han desaparecido o se encuentran en peligro de extinción, entre ellos el carpintero real y el gavilán cagüarero. Otras especies de lagartos, peces y reptiles han corrido igual suerte. De acuerdo a reportes de observadores extranjeros, el ex-Director del Centro Nacional de Áreas Protegidas, Comandante Guillermo García Frías, ha lucrado ilegalmente por décadas con la venta ilegal de fauna salvaje cubana, exportando raros mamíferos a coleccionistas europeos.


Haciendo caso omiso de acuerdos firmados por funcionarios castristas en las dos Cumbres de la Tierra, la de Río de Janeiro en 1992, y la de Johannesburgo en el 2002, los alardes propagandísticos de protección medioambiental del régimen ocultan hipócritamente la realidad de la ruina de nuestra geografía.

La ultima catástrofe provocada por el castrofascismo fue la imprudente introducción en los ríos y lagos del país de la Claria, una mezcla de pez gato americano y pez tigre asiático que ha arrasado las poblaciones de peces naturales de Cuba y con todas las demás especies del hábitat acuático cubano pues este pez se alimenta de cuanto nada, camina y vuela. Cosas del comunismo!!!"

cito: http://latendederadeloscuatrogatos.blogspot.com/2012/01/castrismo-desastre-ecologico.html




En fin, no tienes que leerlo, pero si el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente dice que Cuba es el "cuarto pais del mundo que mas riqueza forestal ha perdido" creo deberia prestarsele atencion y tiene el merito de la veracidad, no?