Expanding the country’s exploration efforts to a near-shore area off west-central Cuba, Russian oil company Zarubezhneft chartered a Norwegian platform for several drills over a period of almost one year, the owner of the rig announced in a press release.
The news comes three weeks after Spain’s Repsol announced it would abandon its deep-water exploration projects in Cuba.
The semi-submersible Songa Mercur, owned by Oslo-based Songa Offshore AS, is scheduled to leave Malaysia July 1, and will then be on standby in Trinidad until Zarubezhneft begins its drilling campaign in late November.
The Russian state company chartered the Songa Mercur for 325 days at a cost of at least $88 million.
The shallow-water rig, built in in a Soviet shipyard 1989 and updated in Galveston, Texas, in 2007, can drill in depths of up to 1,200 feet. In contrast, the Scarabeo 9 platform, first used by Repsol in Cuba and currently contracted by Malaysian company Petronas off western Cuba, can drill in depths up to 12,000 feet; the Scarabeo was custom-built in China and Singapore with minimal U.S. content, to comply with U.S. sanctions.
It isn’t clear how much U.S. content the 22-year old Songa Mercur platform includes. Songa Chief Financial Officer Geir Karlsen did not immediately respond to questions from Cuba Standard.
Zarubezhneft contracted four onshore and near-shore blocks in west-central Cuba in 2009. Company President Nikolai Brunich said in 2010 that the company expected to begin drilling first in Block L. Block L is the easternmost of the four blocks, located off the keys of Villa Clara province near Cayo Santa María, a new beach tourism destination Cuba has been developing over the past 10 years.
The Russian oil company, which opened an office in Havana in 2010, also signed an agreement with CubaPetróleo about the use of experimental technology to maximize production at on-shore wells in the Boca de Jaruco area. If the technology is successful, Zarubezhneft and CubaPetróleo will expand their cooperation in the aging oil field.
The predecessor of Zarubezhneft had been active on the island since the Soviet era.
