LatinNews Daily Report - 30 November 2012

ECONOMY | New mining and energy ministry. The Cuban government has officially created a new mining and energy ministry as part of President Raúl Castro’s state reform efforts. According to an official statement dated 29 November, the Cuban Council of State also approved, via decree Law 301/2012, the dissolution of the ministry of basic industry (MINBAS). The new mining and energy ministry will assume responsibility for energy, geology and mining, formerly part of the MINBAS portfolio, with other MINBAS activities transferred to the main ministry of industry and other national entities. The mining and energy ministry will also have responsibility for Cubapetróleo, Cubaniquel, Geominsal and Unión Eléctrica De Cuba (ECIE). Alfredo López Valdés, who was the basic industry minister, will remain on at the helm of the new entity. On 1 March last it was announced that MINBAS would be dissolved and two new separate ministries for mining and energy set up.  At that stage, there was official optimism about the prospect for Cuba’s still-untapped oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, however, exploratory deepwater wells drilled by several international oil companies partnered with the Cuban government have come up dry and drilling has been suspended.

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