Venezuela confirms start-up of oil exploration off Cuba

Venezuela confirms start-up of oil exploration off Cuba
Published September 05, 2012
EFE

State-owned oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, has started
exploring for oil in deepwater areas off Cuba, Oil and Mining Minister
Rafael Ramirez said.

"It started and when we have the results, we'll tell the country,"
Ramirez said, without providing further details.

State-owned Cubapetroleo, or CUPET, said in early August that PDVSA
would continue drilling in deepwater areas despite the fact that other
foreign oil companies hit two dry holes.

Malaysia's PC Gulf and Russia's Gazpromneft found an "active petroleum
system" during their turns at operating the Scarabeo 9 rig, making the
discovery at a depth of 4,666 meters (15,298 feet) but failing to come
up with significant ammounts of gas and petroleum in Cuba's Exclusive
Economic Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, CUPET said.

Scarabeo 9 will be turned over "in the next few days" to PDVSA "so it
can start drilling the Cabo de San Antonio 1 exploratory well" in the
zone, CUPET said.

Spain's Repsol failed to find oil while using the rig in May.

Cuba's Exclusive Economic Zone in the Gulf of Mexico is divided into 59
blocks, of which 22 are under contract to foreign oil companies.

The Cuban government estimates that the zone may hold 20 billion barrels
of petroleum, while other estimates range from 5 billion barrels to 9
billion barrels. EFE

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