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Cuba and Venezuela sign 14 oil agreements

23/12/2007 02h25

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (2nd R) and Cuban acting president Raul Castro (R)
©AFP/Presidencia/HO

HAVANA (AFP) - Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and acting Cuban President Raul Castro signed agreements Saturday in the energy, mining and oil sectors, including a 170-million-dollar deal to build a new power plant.

The agreements, closing a four-day visit by Chavez to Cuba, also include a 122-dollar loan for Cuba to buy tanker ships to transport crude oil and its derivatives.

Two agreements will almost double the new southeastern Cienfuegos oil refinery's capacity from 65,000 to 150,000 barrels per day, and reopen an oil pipeline between the eastern Matanzas and the refinery, located 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of Havana.

Two agreements provide a 170-million-dollar loan to build a new power plant in northeastern Holguin and expand the existing power network supplying Havana.

During his visit, Chavez met with ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, inaugurated the Cienfuegos refinery and attended the fourth summit of Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan initiative to provide oil to Caribbean neighbors at preferential prices.

Cuba imports about 92,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan oil, some of it paid indirectly by supplying Venezuela with 36,000 Cuban workers, most of them medical doctors.