Cuba hopeful of richer oil deposits

Cuban oil officials took foreign geologists and petroleum experts on a tour of the island’s oil and natural gas works on Saturday in hopes of sparking more international interest in investment.

Attendees at an earth sciences conference were taken to several extraction facilities in a deposit-rich strip along the northern part of the island, including the $200 million Cuban-Canadian natural gas plant in an area called Boca de Jaruco.
“The geology we find here is very similar to that of eastern Mexico, of the southern United States,” said Rafael Tenreyro, a drilling specialist with the state oil company Cupet.

About 95 per cent of Cuba’s daily production of 85,000 barrels of petroleum and 120 million cubic feet of natural gas comes from the region along the north coast.

Cuban officials are betting on even richer deposits offshore, where foreign companies are already engaged in exploratory drilling in partnership with the communist government.

“Our intent is to continue to explore and discover great oil fields,” said Tenreyro.

The US Geological Survey estimates that the North Cuba Basin holds 4.6 billion to 9.3 billion barrels of crude, along with 9.8 trillion cubic feet to 21.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

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