"By the end of the year, 90 percent of our electricity will be produced with domestic oil or gas," Cuba's Minister of Basic Industry, Marcos Portal, told a meeting of business officials in Havana earlier this year. "Last year, 50 percent of the country's electricity was already generated with domestic fuel. So far this year, we are already running at more than 70 percent."

Portal said that more than $1 billion has been invested in Cuba's electricity industry over the past eight years, much of this in joint ventures with foreign capitalist concerns. High voltage power lines had already been installed with help from the former Soviet Union and other countries in Eastern Europe--they run from one end of the island to the other.

The increase in generation of electricity today is a big turnaround from just seven years ago when Cuba suffered from power blackouts of up to 12 hours a day. Portal noted that electrical service to the population has improved. "When there is a breakdown, the service is affected, but we immediately start up the reserve plants," he stated. "Moreover, in the last 10 years, we have supplied a further half a million Cuban families with electricity, maintaining the electrification of 95 percent of the country, in the middle of the special period."

The Special Period is referred to by the Cuban people as a time of deepening economic crisis and plummeting living standards following the collapse of trade and aid from the former Soviet Union and other countries in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s. Imports of petroleum products from the Soviet Union, which stood at 13.11 million tons, plummeted. The oil refinery in Havana was closed as a result and did not resume operations until 1997. The Santiago refinery was reopened last year.

"The process going on in Cuba of prospecting and drilling for oil has converted the country into a world leader in the application of modern technologies in the field," stated Cuba Business, reporting on remarks by Marcos Portal to the fourth annual Congress on Geology and Mining in Havana last March.

One factor in the increased production of electricity is the decision of the government to build modern and highly efficient gas-fired plants utilizing gas that had previously been released into the atmosphere during oil production. The equivalent of 565 tons of fuel has been produced this way. Steps have also been taken to increase the efficiency of power plants.

Cuba has entered into joint ventures with companies from France, Canada, Britain, Brazil, Sweden, and Spain for oil exploration. These involve the foreign company getting up to 50 percent of profits. According to Granma Internacional, the most important discovery of oil over the last five years was made on the country's north coast between Havana and Matanzas where they are currently producing 200–250 tons per day from wells at Puerto Escondido.

The country's total oil production last year was 2.65 million tons, while it imported 100,000 barrels of oil a day. The increased domestic oil production saved Cuba an estimated $250 million in import costs last year, Cuba Business reported. But due to higher world prices of oil, Cuba had to pay $500 million more than budgeted for oil last year. High fuel costs, bad weather, and other factors led to a decline in the sugar crop this year.

Cuba has also granted licenses for exploration in deep-water sites in Cuban national waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
 
 
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