The Russians return to Cuba and this time it seems that will help in the search for oil. President Raul Castro received on the afternoon of Saturday November 23, 2013 Igor Sechin, executive director of the oil company Rosneft. The news came two days after the meeting took place.
Sechin, who heads the oil company owned by the Russian government, is visiting Cuba chairing a delegation from Moscow.
One of the topics discussed between Castro and Sechin was the training of technicians and specialists in the oil industry, as reported in an article published in the Cuban press.
Another point of discussion was the Mariel and the prospects of its Special Development Zone. In the meeting also participated Boris Kovalchuk, CEO of Inter RAO, a Russian energy holding company that sells energy machinery to Cuba and has a representative office in the Island
Everything indicates that the meeting addressed the issue of investment in oil and in the Cuban energy sector since Raul Castro was accompanied by his Minister of Energy and Mines, Alfredo López Valdés, and Antonio Carricarte Corona, Acting Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, who takes the place of Rodrigo Malmierca during his stay in Brazil.
In April 2013, it was announced that at the end of that year an oil rig owned by the Russian company Zarubezhneft will drill in Cuba’s exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
In July 2011, the Russian oil company Gazprom Neft , the Cuban Cubapetroleo ( CPUPET ) and Malaysia Petronas signed a Participation Agreement Supplement to the production of this economic zone located in front of the Cuban western end. So far, all explorations have failed … or at least that is the information that has been made public.
It is estimated that in the areas located off the coast of Pinar del Rio there are over 6 billion barrels of oil, though the most optimistic take that figure to 20 billion.
