Thu Jul 9, 2009 6:24pm EDT
By Jeff Franks
HAVANA, July 9 (Reuters) - Brazil said on Thursday it would give Cuba up
to $300 million in credits to start rebuilding the island's port of
Mariel, better known as the site of a 1980 Cuban exodus to the United
States.
Brazilian Industry and Trade Minister Miguel Jorge said $110 million had
been approved by his government and the rest would likely be, as Brazil
strengthens its ties with communist-led Cuba.
He said in a news conference that construction, to be led by a Brazilian
company, would begin "very soon" with the building of infrastructure
including highways and a railroad for the port about 30 miles (50 km)
west of Havana.
Brazilian officials said Cuba expects the entire port project, which
will be built in several phases, to cost up to $2 billion.
The first phase is projected to take four or five years to complete and
cost $600 million, they said.
Mariel was the scene of the massive boatlift from April to October 1980
when a flotilla of vessels from the United States picked up 125,000
Cubans after the Cuban government said anyone wanting to leave the
island could do so.
Now Cuba wants Mariel to serve as logistics center for its still-nascent
offshore oil industry and to be equipped to handle shipments from around
the world, including the United States, just 90 miles (145 km) to the
north of Cuba.
U.S.-Cuban trade is restricted by a U.S. trade embargo imposed in 1962,
three years after Fidel Castro led a revolution to topple a U.S.-backed
dictator.
Jorge, who was on the second day of a two-day visit to Cuba, said
Brazil's state-owned oil giant Petrobras (PETR4.SA)PBR.SA, which last
October was awarded a bloc for oil exploration in Cuban waters, would
open an office in Havana on Tuesday.
He said Petrobras was completing seismic studies of the bloc and working
on getting a drilling rig to Cuba.
Jorge did not say when Petrobras expected to begin drilling. So far,
only one test well has been drilled in Cuba's offshore fields -- by
Spain's Repsol-YPF (REP.MC) in 2004. (Editing by Jim Loney)
Brazil to help finance Cuban port project | Industries | Energy |
Reuters (9 July 2009)
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSN0946514120090709
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