Vietnam joins search for oil in Cuba's Gulf waters http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN0145182720070602
Fri Jun 1, 2007
HAVANA, June 1 (Reuters) - Vietnam's state oil and gas group became on Friday the sixth oil company to sign risk contracts to explore Cuba's promising Gulf of Mexico waters.
Petrovietnam signed contracts for blocks 31, 31, 42 and 43 in the deep waters of Cuba's economic exclusion zone where non-commercial quantities of light oil have been discovered.
The prospecting, drilling and production contracts were signed with Cuban state oil company CUPET during a visit to Havana by Vietnam's Communist Party leader, Nong Duc Manh.
Petrovietnam also signed a risk contract for onshore blocks 16, 17 and 18, a Cuban government statement said.
The overseas arm of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) (ONGC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) signed up two blocks in September and is conducting seismic work. Its representative in Havana, R.S. Pandey, said a first well could be sunk in late 2008 or early 2009.
ONGC is already a partner with Spain's Repsol-YPF (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) and Norway's Norsk Hydro (NHY.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) in six blocks in an area where Repsol in 2004 found good-quality oil but not enough to develop commercially.
The consortium is expected to drill again next year.
Malaysia's state-run Petronas [PETR.UL] and Canada's Sherritt International (S.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) also have risk contracts in Cuba's 43,250-square-mile (112,000-square-km) offshore zone in Gulf water opened to foreign exploration in 1999 in 59 blocks.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated the North Cuba basin could contain 4.6 billion barrels of oil, with a high-end potential of 9.3 billion barrels, and close to 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
U.S. companies are barred from exploring for oil in Cuba under trade sanctions enforced in 1962 against the island's communist government. Cuba produces 60,000 barrels per day of poor-quality oil and imports 92,000 bpd of oil and derivatives from its ally Venezuela on generous terms.
Venezuela's state-run PDVSA, which is repairing a Cuban refinery at Cienfuegos, is reportedly interested in signing up four blocks in Cuba' Gulf waters.
Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec Corp. signed an agreement last year to produce heavy oil with CUPET in Cuba's western-most Pinar del Rio province from onshore wells.
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