Venezuela Oil Sales To Cuba At 98,000 B/D In 2006-Oil Min

Venezuela Oil Sales To Cuba At 98,000 B/D In 2006-Oil Min
05-23-06 07:48 AM EST

CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- Venezuela's crude sales to Fidel Castro's Cuba
stand at 98,000 barrels a day, the oil minister said late Monday.

"They stand at 98,000 b/d and they should remain there this year," Oil
Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters.

The figure is slighly higher than the 90,000 barrels a day announced in
early January, and an indication that Venezuela's economic ties with the
island nation continue to strengthen.

Oil sales to Cuba increased to 90,000 b/d last year, sometimes reaching
92,000 b/d in some months, according to government estimates.

Venezuela's total trade with Cuba reached $1.76 billion last year, of
which oil and crude products amounted to $1.62 billion, according to
figures from state-run export bank Bancoex.

Oil ministry officials have long insisted that Cuba pays international
prices for Venezuelan crude and receives the same benefits offered to
other Latin American countries.

Castro in turn pays for oil shipments partly with cash and part with
services rendered by thousands of Cuban doctors that tend to the poor in
Venezuelan barrios.

President Hugo Chavez has worked to cement relations with Cuba and to
further integrate both economies.

Doing business with the island, Chavez has said, is a legitimate right
his government has and is part of a campaign to foster a multipolar
world with reduced dependence on the U.S.

--By Raul Gallegos, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-212-564-1339; raul.gallegos@
dowjones.com

Corrected May 23, 200608:13 ET (12:13 GMT)

Venezuela's total trade with Cuba reached $1.76 billion last year, of
which oil and crude product sales stood at $1.62 billion, according to
figures from state-run export bank Bancoex.

(In the item "Venezuela Oil Sales To Cuba At 98,000 B/D In 2006--Oil
Min", published at 7:48 a.m. EDT, it misstated the dollar amount of
total exports to Cuba.)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-23-06 0748ET

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