[A-List] Venezuela, Cuba Firms to Search for Oil

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8MT3BQ00.htm>
Venezuela, Cuba firms to search for oil
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ
BW Exclusives

CARACAS, Venezuela

The state oil companies of Venezuela and Cuba will join in hunting
petroleum in Venezuela's Orinoco River belt as well as Cuba's part of
the Gulf of Mexico, the government announced on Friday.

The deal between Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, and
Cubapetroleo, or Cupet, appears to bolster a growing oil industry in
Cuba, where a lack of petroleum caused dire hardships following the
collapse of Soviet aid in the early 1990s.

It also further expands President Hugo Chavez's relationship with
President Fidel Castro's communist government in Cuba. The deal was
one of 16 agreements signed by Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage during
a trip this week to Caracas.

Under the announced accord, PDVSA and Cupet will jointly explore in
the Orinoco's Boyaca Norte block in Venezuela, as well as in blocks
N53, N54, N58 y N59 in Cuba's part of the Gulf of Mexico.

Venezuela already has been selling Cuba almost 100,000 barrels of oil
a day under preferential terms, while Cuba has thousands of volunteer
doctors to Venezuela who offer free care to the poor.

PDVSA last year also signed an agreement to revive Cuba's Cienfuegos refinery.

Cuba's own oil production has increased steadily over the past 15
years, aided by companies from Canada, Spain and other nations.

Oil specialists believe Cuba's waters in the Gulf of Mexico could
contain large quantities of crude, although explorations so far have
turned up only modest discoveries.

In September, Cuba signed a deal giving ONGC Videsh Ltd., of India's
Oil and Natural Gas Corp., exploration rights to other blocks in the
Gulf of Mexico.

ONGC Videsh also is cooperating with Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF and
Norway-based Norsk Hydro ASA in other exploration efforts in Cuban
waters.

The U.S. government embargo of Cuba blocks U.S. companies from
participating in such exploration.

--
Yoshie
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