Brazils Petrobras and the Companhia Cubana de Petroleo (Cupet), Cubas state-owned oil company, signed a wide-ranging cooperation agreement last week that – among other things – foresees construction of a lubricant plant in Havana.
Two Petrobras work groups are now in Cuba to advance talks on projects that Petrobras must make viable in cooperation with Cupet, Petrobras said in its Jan. 15 announcement of the cooperation agreement, which also covers exploration and production, refining, maintenance, research and development and human resources.
The two companies also signed specific memorandums of understanding to define the stages and deadlines to be fulfilled to analyze and make the exploration and production, and lubricant projects, viable.
The Petrobras-Cupet agreement was signed by Petrobras President Jose Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, and by Cupet General Director Fidel Rivero Prieto, during an official visit made by Brazils President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to Cuba.
According to Business News Americas, Cupet has three enterprises in charge of oil well drilling and extraction, four oil refineries, distribution companies and a national lubricants company called Cubalub. The four refineries have a total capacity of 5.6 million metric tons per year, according to Business News Americas. A supertanker base in Matanzas province receives ships of up to 150,000 deadweight tons and is connected to the Ciefuegos refinery by a 187 kilometer pipeline.