• Cuba now produces 47% of the fuel it consumes • Accompanying gas from crude production is used to produce 15% of its electricity •  Thirty-two new wells drilled

BY Ventura de Jesús —Granma daily staff writer—

CARDENAS.— For the third time, Cuba’s oil production will reach 4 million tons this year, which it has not done since 2003, and which is particularly important now given the fact that the price of crude on the international market is more than $90 per barrel.

This has been a good year for oil, affirmed Carlos Lage Davila, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, speaking in this city in Matanzas province. He specified that Cuba now produces 47% of the fuel it consumes and generates 15% of its electricity with accompanying gas from oil production.

Accompanied by fellow Political Bureau member Yadira García Vera, minister of basic industry, Lage visited the EPEP-C (Oil Drilling and Extraction Enterprise of Centro) on Tuesday, December 25, just a few hours before its production reached a total of one million tons of crude, a figure it has maintained for the last two years.

Lage said that by the close of this year, 2,908,000 tons of crude will have been obtained, and approximately 1.215 million cubic meters of gas, the equivalent of just over one million tons of oil.

Referring to the significance of these results, he underlined the importance of the increased production and utilization of 97% of accompanying gas. He said that necessary investments had been made to prevent environmental pollution from this gas being released into the air, and at the same time, to use this oil equivalent for generating electricity at a much lower cost.

In order to have an idea of the impact on the economy, the vice president of the Council of State pointed out that if Cuba had imported fuel oil for generating the same amount of electricity (15%) at current prices, it would have had to spend from $400 million to $500 million; that is, the equivalent of more than twice the total income from tobacco exports.

He explained that seismic studies were carried out this year like never before, and 32 new wells were drilled, something that was possible due to Fidel’s decision to acquire 10 drilling machines, in anticipation of high oil prices and the natural deterioration of our wells. Ten of those new wells were drilled by Cuban enterprises. In further good news, he said, many of the specialized services required for those wells are being provided by Cuban enterprises, and are expected to cover half of them in 2009, replacing foreign companies.

Lage congratulated the oil workers of Matanzas and the entire country, and spoke in favor of emphasizing conservation more and more, and not just by replacing equipment and investing in modernization and new technology, but also through greater control, organization and discipline.

During the visit, special recognition was given to a group of workers and oil enterprises, including EPEP-C. The latter had a 96.22% rate of exploitation of its wells, cutting unit costs by 11 pesos per ton and reducing electric power consumption by 6.22%.

Reinaldo Ruiz González, director of that enterprise, said that it had been certified under the quality management system according to ISO standard 9001 from 2001, and that two of its facilities won national environmental recognition from the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, and as a center for reference in the military registry.

Translated by Granma International •

Granma 26-12-2007