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Blockade's Effects on Cuban Oil Industry
Irrationality Goes to the Bowels of the Earth
Joel Mayor Lorán, Granma Daily, October 22, 2010

The US blockade includes, among its main objectives, making the development of the Cuban oil industry unsustainable.

The US government knows very well that the oil industry is essential for Cuba’s economic independence. When the Revolution triumphed, one of the first measures in its attempt to make Cubans give in was to cut off sales of the hydrocarbon; over half a century later, the policy of blockade against our archipelago continues torpedoing the development of this branch of industry: losses already add up to many millions of dollars.

The oil industry requires high technology, but the blockade hinders its purchase.

Just due to the impossibility of importing explosive charges for punching holes of oil wells, the Caribbean island was prevented from producing more than 480,000 barrels of oil in 2009, worth 20 million dollars at that year’s average price.

Canadian manufacturer INNICOR Subsurface Technologies, was supplying these charges in 2007, but was bought up by a US company.

In 2008, the Cuban State received offers from another Canadian company, the LRI Perforating Systems Inc; however, in October, 2009, before formalizing the first contract, it was also absorbed by a US entity, the DMC (Dynamic Materials Corporation).

A coincidence? "The oil industry, in general the energy industry, is one of the pillars of the economy; therefore, the blockade includes regulations especially conceived to prevent its development. The policy of siege has been planned so the losses of this production lead to the impossibility of maintaining this industry," states Rafael Tenreyro-Pérez, head of Prospecting for Cubapetróleo.

The previous example reveals how that obsession prevented one of the few producers of these boring charges from giving access to this technology to Cuba, which is nothing but a small example of the cruelty and impact of a series of measures.

"The oil industry requires high technology, the best practices and the safest means possible. But the blockade limits the import of state-of-the-art technologies; we have to acquire the ones we use (also advanced) at much higher prices, since the number of companies offering this service has been notably reduced and equipment has to be designed specifically for our nation.

"The US government bans US enterprises from going into partnership with Cubapetróleo for oil prospecting and production. At the same time, it exerts pressure on those of other countries operating and producing oil in Cuba.

"If this weren’t enough, the US oil industry is one of the main ones, and there’s practically no important technological element that doesn’t include US components. Thus, suppliers of both technology and services have to guarantee that whatever is sent to the archipelago doesn’t have them, which is not detrimental to the quality but it does have detrimental effects on prices.

"From exploration, the discovery of fields and prospecting, to its development, production, transportation, storage and treatment: each step requires high technology. Then, there’s no other choice but bringing equipment especially designed to work in Cuba, without US components."

The very same consortiums of the most industrialized nation on the planet are the victims of this economic war; they are also affected, since they can’t sell their technology, collaborate or invest. To this day, irrationality is affecting the two sides. It gets into the shot holes, pumps and wells: to the very same bowels of the earth.