Cuba raises drilling game
Chinese equipment to power exploration effort
Cuba is taking delivery of Chinese oil drilling equipment as state-run Cubapetroleo (Cupet) and its foreign partners prepare to increase drilling activity along the north-west coast, industry sources said.
"Four service units and a small rig have arrived and we are waiting for more," a Cuban oil service manager told Reuters, asking that his name not be used.
There are currently five rigs operating along the north-west heavy oil belt, a 128-kilometre stretch of coast in Havana and Matanzas provinces from which come all of Cuba's 70,000 to 80,000 barrels per day of heavy crude at 8 API to 18 API and with a high sulphur content. Most new wells are drilled vertically from the shore to as far as 2.5 kilometres out to sea.
President Fidel Castro said earlier this month that oil production and exploration would increase significantly this year. "We have purchased from China a tremendous rig that can reach up to seven kilometres out to sea and contracted for two additional ones for May or June," Castro said.
A Cupet official said that all three rigs, two with a capacity to drill seven-kilometre vertical wells and one five-kilometre well, would arrive soon, boosting drilling capacity by 40%.
Canadian companies Sherritt International, in conjunction with Cupet, account for 60% of the output, plus 2 million cubic metres of natural gas per day.