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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 |
