Cuba Standard Monthly CUBAN BUSINESS and ECONOMIC NEWS
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cuba standard monthly CUBAN BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC NEWS VOL. XIV, NO. 6 www.cubastandard.com JUN.-JUL 2012 REPSOL ABANDONING RUSSIAN, VENEZUELAN OFFSHORE OIL QUEST COMPANIES JOIN RACE epsol SA won’t perform Offshore drilling in Cuba xpanding the country’s ex- a second exploratory drill ploration efforts to a near- in RCuban waters after a first drill Scarabeo 9, l., shoreE area off west-central Cuba, came up empty, Chairman Anto- Songa Mercur Russian oil company Zarubezhneft nio Brufau announced in a press chartered a Norwegian platform for conference in Madrid May 29. Petronas/Gazprom Neft Zarubezhneft several drills over a period of al- “I am almost certain we won’t most one year, the owner of the rig do any more activities” in Cuba, announced in a press release. Brufau said in the presentation of Oslo-based Songa Offshore AS the Spanish company’s $24 bil- PdVSA said that the Russian state company lion five-year plan. map: Cuba Standard chartered the Songa Mercur for 325 Repsol has already contracted days at a cost of at least $88 mil- Scarabeo 9 — the only deepwa- ne week after news broke that Spanish lion. ter platform in the world built Ooil company Repsol is likely to abandon Meanwhile, Venezuelan officials to comply with U.S. sanctions the island, a statement by CubaPetróleo (Cupet) announced that Venezuelan state against Cuba — to perform drills read on state TV said offshore oil discoveries oil company PdVSA contracted the in Brazil. had “high potentiality” in the long run. The lack Scarabeo 9 rig and had budgeted The results from Repsol’s first of success in Repsol’s Jagüey 1X well “in no way $40 million for the deepwater un- exploratory drill by the Scara- voids the perspectives of the zone, which encom- dertaking. The built-for-Cuba plat- beo-9 platform just North of Ha- passes an area of 112,000 square kilometers in form first used by Repsol will drill vana were “negative”, the com- the Gulf of Mexico, one of the main oil produc- the Cabo de San Antonio 1X well pany confirmed May 18, without ing basins worldwide with high potentiality for for Petróleos de Venezuela off the providing details. Spokesman the discovery of new hydrocarbon reserves,” the western tip of the island after it fin- Kristian Rix said a week earlier Cupet statement said. (also see India, p 7) ishes its turn with Petronas in July. Cont’d on next page Cont’d on next page INSIDE U.S. IMPOSES RECORD PAYMENT ON DUTCH BANK ontinuing a crackdown on India offering Cthird-country banks in Cuba support for begun under the Bush Administra- refinery..............7 tion, the Obama Administration’s cutors; ING will submit Office of Foreign Assets Control a report to OFAC over Castro tours (OFAC) announced a record $619 its handling of US China, Vietnam, million settlement with ING Bank dollar transactions. Russia..............10 N.V. over alleged violations of U.S. Hommen: ING’s mega-pay- Trial against sanctions primarily against Cuba. ‘Serious and ment exceeds set- Mas Santos In a press release, OFAC boasted unacceptable’ tlements of Swiss begins...............11 the deal with the Amsterdam-based banks UBS, which More than bank was “the largest OFAC settle- paid $100 million in 2007, a financial ment of any kind to date.” The settlement, and Crédit Suisse, which gamble.............3 OFAC said, includes both its civil investiga- paid $536 million in 2009 tion and criminal investigations by U.S. prose- to the United States, both Continued on page 9 ‘Repsol’, from previous page ‘Russian, Venezuelan companies’, from previous page that Repsol was “evaluating the situation.” The company per- PdVSA officials have said that the prospects in the area formed the drill in a consortium with India’s ONGC Videsh look “very promising.” and Norway’s Statoil. On May 24 Scarabeo 9 began drilling in a block off west- This was the second time Repsol failed to strike oil in ex- ern Cuba licensed to the Malaysian state oil company. Petro- ploratory drilling off Cuba, after a first drill in 2004 did not nas is the senior partner in a consortium with privately owned produce “commercially viable quantities.” Russian oil company Gazprom Neft. A major offshore oil find is Cuba’s best shot at mid-term re- Meanwhile, Zarubezhneft’s contracted rig is expected to lief from its permanent cash crunch. Some pressure has been arrive this fall. According to the company, the search of a taken off the Cuban economy thanks to Venezuelan oil sup- platform that complies with U.S. sanction regulations de- plied at preferential conditions and in barter deals. However, layed the start of drilling from August. The semi-submersible Cuba’s dependence on a friendly Venezuela — which covers Songa Mercur, built in in a Soviet shipyard 1989 and updated half of the island’s oil needs — has been put in the spotlight in Galveston, Texas, in 2007, is scheduled to leave Malaysia with President Hugo Chávez’ battle against cancer. July 1 and then be on standby in Trinidad until Zarubezhneft The Spanish company will concentrate its upstream efforts begins its drilling campaign in late November. The Russian on 10 “key growth” projects that are already under devel- company chartered the Songa Mercur from Oslo-based Son- opment in Brazil, the U.S., Russia, Spain, Venezuela, Peru, ga Offshore AS for 325 days at a cost of at least $88 million. Bolivia and Algeria. At the same time, Repsol will make “se- The rig can drill in depths of up to 1,200 feet. In contrast, lective de-investments in non-strategic assets” worth up to the Scarabeo 9 platform, custom-built in China and Singa- $5.6 billion, the company said in a press release. pore with minimal U.S. content to comply with U.S. sanc- tions, can drill in depths up to 12,000 feet. Built in China and Singapore with less than 10 percent U.S. content, Scarabeo 9 costs $511,000 a day to operate, well above the cost of regu- U.S. link: lar platforms. The Soviet-built Zarubezhneft contracted four onshore and near-shore Songa Mercur, blocks in west-central Cuba in 2009. Company President leaving Galveston Nikolai Brunich said in 2010 that the company expected to in 2007. begin drilling first in Block L, the easternmost of the four blocks, located off tourism-heavy Cayo Santa María. The Russian oil company opened an office in Havana in Photo: Songa Offshore 2010. Letter from Tampa il has Cuba watchers teetering between doom and boom these days. After all the political push-and-shove between theO United States, Cuba, and Repsol over the Spanish company’s offshore drilling in Cuba, the Repsol has nothing to show for its Cuba Standard Monthly is a publication of Cuba risk-taking, effort and money, and is now likely to leave Cuba. Standard Inc., Tampa, FL, USA. CSM is distributed to As opposed to what a few Cuba watchers have told you, that’s subscribers via e-mail. not the end of the oil story, though. Oil companies from Malay- sia, Venezuela and Russia have already lined up drilling rigs, Publisher Jason Busto 1702 Saint Louis St. and more state oil companies from India, Vietnam and Angola Tampa, FL 33607 are waiting in the ranks. USA But the main message I am trying to get across here is that the Tel: 813 624 2350 real ecoomic bonanza for Cuba lies not offshore. It’s the Cuban Fax: 813 253 3938 people and their pent-up skills and desire to succeed and ad- [email protected] vance their and their families’ lot. The slow, but steadily advanc- www.cubastandard.com ing economic reforms in Cuba have already added more than Editor Johannes Werner 200,000 entrepreneurs to the economy in less than two years. If Tel: 941 330 0303 things continue to advance as they have in the recent past, there [email protected] will be a considerable private sector on the island. This means SUBSCRIPTIONS Call 813 624 2350 or email that Cuba exporters and foreign investors should begin to posi- to [email protected]. One year $199. tion themselves to take advantage of these potential new clients and business partners. Exciting times! COPYRIGHT NOTICE No part of this publication Sincerely, may be copied, photographed or duplicated without Cuba Standard’s consent. Jason Busto, publisher — [email protected] 2 Opinion & Analysis Investing in Cuba is more than a financial gamble Below we reprint part of a long piece by analyst Justin Rohrlich that reflects many foreign investors’ concerns of Cuba in light of the current crackdown on corrup- tion. For the full article, go to investor Website www.minyanville.com. By Justin Rohrlich Vahe “Cy” Tokmakjian, CEO of On- nvestment risk can mean a num- tario, Canada’s, Tokmakjian Group, ber of different things. This past which sold buses, trucks, and mining By Anya Landau French fall,I British businessman Amado equipment to Cuba and served as Cuba’s Can the BRICS sink Fakhre took a particularly severe type exclusive distributor for Hyundai, was or save Cuba? of loss: His freedom. an experienced Cuba hand. October, 2011: Fakhre, the Leb- ust as I was about to overlook anese-born, Havana-based CEO of Jnews of the first visit to Cuba Coral Capital — which claimed to by an Indian Foreign Minister in have invested $75 million in Cuba, nearly 25 years, during which it with more than $1 billion worth of was agreed to “open new horizons” projects in the pipeline — is woken in the bilateral economic relation- at dawn and arrested by Cuban au- Fakhre, Max Marambio, Yacoubian ship, the following headline caught thorities.