Power shortage drives Cuba to shut 118 factories
Friday, October 1, 2004
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Up against a crippling
power shortage, Cuba will close 118 factories during October, and slash work
and schooldays by half an hour for several months, officials said.
The Americas' only communist government is striving for "maximum conservation
in the economy even if more spending is necessary," Vice President Carlos Lage
said Wednesday in a televised roundtable discussion attended by President
Fidel Castro and a panel of experts. The
population of 11 million people face regular power outages and Lage said the
plan would help "reduce blackouts to the greatest possible extent."
Official state media said blackouts outside the capital would be for five-six
hours a day, six days a week. The vice
president also said Cuba would not change local time back from daylight
savings time next month in order to better take advantage of sunlight.
A breakdown in May at Cuba's main oil-fueled power plant, Antonio Guiteras, in
Matanzas province, has yet to be repaired.
And amid breakdowns at other plants, power output has plunged to about 50
percent of demand, officials say. Lage also
said there would be restrictions on air conditioning use during peak demand
hours, and cutbacks in security lighting. Led
by Castro since 1959, Cuba has been in dire economic straits since the
collapse of the former Soviet bloc which once flooded it with subsidized food
and fuel. Energy long has been the Achilles heel of Cuba's economy.
Havana has been unable to complete a Soviet-technology nuclear reactor that
was planned for Juragua. And with its
oil-burning plants, Cuba relies on Venezuelan imports while its own crude,
which is high in sulfur, requires costly cleaning to be used.
Cuba has high hopes it can strike oil off its coast.
Spanish oil company Repsol-YPF and some rivals are looking for new oil fields
around Cuba, one of the most under-exploited areas in the world.
In July, Repsol-YPF said that its first well drilled near Cuba was not worth
exploiting commercially. But company officials indicated the group will
continue to evaluate the studies in coming months, with future drilling
expected after a year. The most optimistic
forecasts among those close to Repsol earlier had suggested a possible find of
reserves that could produce 400,000 barrels a day, almost six times the
current 73,000 b/d output, for current demand of 169,000 b/d.
That kind of find would leave Cuba in a position to export more than 200,000
b/d, suddenly and dramatically ending the communist regime's energy and budget
crunch, and potentially giving it access to international credit it now lacks.
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