Cuba's energy woes in focus at oil partners

Cuba's energy woes in focus at oil partners
By ANITA SNOW and RACHEL JONES , 06.12.09, 02:56 PM EDT

HAVANA -- Venezuela aims to expand its sales of oil to Cuba and other
nations on highly preferential terms, putting politics over economics as
it meets Friday with neighbors looking for more cheap fuel.

Cuba especially needs the help.

It already benefits from Venezuela's largesse more than any other member
of the Petrocaribe pact that has boosted the South American nation's
regional influence across the region. But higher-than-expected energy
use so far this year has prompted Cuban officials to threaten Saturday
morning blackouts and forced vacations just as the sweltering summer
season begins.

Leaders of 18 nations in the Petrocaribe pact had promising news as they
began their summit on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts

"Petrocaribe will be strengthened - independent of the international
situation, independent of the price of oil," Venezuela President Hugo
Chavez said as he arrived Friday in St. Kitts.

His country's state Bolivarian News Agency said Petrocaribe leaders meet
"with the expectation of its expansion, as well as new programs of
cooperation and attention to a world increasingly thirsty for fuel."
Cuba's energy woes in focus at oil partners - Forbes.com (12 June 2009)
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/06/12/ap6538965.html