The Cuba Oil Union (Spanish: ''Unión Cuba-Petróleo'') or CUPET is Cuba's largest oil company. It is owned and operated by the Cuban national government. The company is involved in the extraction of petroleum deposits as well as the refining and distributing of petroleum products. In conjunction with the conglomerate

CIMEX ''Cimex'' is a genus of insects in the family Cimicidae. ''Cimex'' species are ectoparasites that typically feed on the blood of birds and mammals. Two species, ''Cimex lectularius'' and ''Cimex hemipterus'', are known as bed bugs and frequently ...

, it operates a chain of filling stations selling gasoline in convertible pesos. The extraction is based in Cuba's northern region of

Havana Province La Habana Province , formerly known as Ciudad de La Habana Province, is a province of Cuba that includes the territory of the city of Havana, the Republic's capital. Between 1878 and 2010, the name referred to another province that covered a m ...

(''Provincia de la Habana''). CUPET jointly produces oil on the island and has business agreements with, among others, the People's Republic of China, the Spanish oil company Repsol and Canada's Sherritt International. Cuba produces around of heavy crude oil. Various companies have explored for oil in Cuba over the last 15 years with the only new discoveries along the northwest heavy oil belt, an 80-mile (128 km) stretch of coast in La Habana and

Matanzas Matanzas (Cuban ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas (Spanish ''Bahia de Matanzas''), east ...

provinces. Cuba consumes about , of which of oil and oil products are imported from Venezuela on

Petrocaribe Petrocaribe was a regional oil procurement agreement between Venezuela and Caribbean member states. The alliance was founded on 29 June 2005 in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela during Hugo Chavez presidency. Venezuela offered member states oil supplie ...

generous financing terms under a wide-ranging cooperation accord.

History

1960

On August 6, 1960, the Cuban government, under President Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado and Prime Minister

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

, nationalized all American owned oil refineries located within Cuba's national borders. Along with sugar factories and mines, Cuba seized approximately $1.7 billion in U.S. oil assets. This nationalization of property resulted partially from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's decision to cancel all oil exports to Cuba. Eisenhower's decision came in the wake of the Cuban Revolution and its establishment of a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

state on the island. This forced the Cuban government to rely on Soviet oil imports. Eisenhower ordered American oil companies to refuse to refine Soviet oil and then the Cuban government nationalized the refineries as a result. Following the successful Cuban Revolution (1953–59), a socialist state was established in Cuba. In total, Cuba nationalized roughly 6,000 American owned properties. The many individual oil and gas facilities were compacted into a single, state controlled company, The Cuba Oil Union (Spanish: ''Unión Cuba-Petróleo''). Despite attempts at negotiation, no property was ever returned to the American companies and they have yet to receive any compensation from the Cuban government. Diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba quickly deteriorated and the first in a series of embargoes was placed on the

Castro Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''. ...

regime in October 1960.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuba Petroleo Union Oil and gas companies of Cuba National oil and gas companies Government-owned companies of Cuba Non-renewable resource companies established in 1960 1960 establishments in Cuba

History

1960

See also

References

External links