ENERGY-CUBA: Projects Seek to Provide Cooking Gas for All

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, May 8 2001 (IPS) - Natural gas will be made available this year to 40,000 families in the Cuban capital, states a government initiative, replacing the kerosene, electricity or coal the residents have been using, and marking another step towards universal access to cooking gas.

Havana, a city of 2.2 million people, currently has a gas distribution network that supplies some 600,000 people in four urban communities.

The rest of the population uses liquid gas, electricity, kerosene or coal, though in the worst years of the economic crisis, which began in the early 1990s, there were neighbourhoods left virtually treeless because firewood was the only fuel available.

According to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a United Nations regional agency, the availability of kerosene dropped 30 percent during that time.

Nevertheless, a sort of balance was achieved through the use of small electrical stoves and an increase in the use of firewood, says ECLAC.

Households consuming liquid gas in the capital currently number 270,000, though the supply is limited to 10 kilograms every 19 days for each four-person family.

“Lately the replacement is usually fast, but before, exchanging the cylinder would take weeks,” commented Manuela Rodríguez, a homemaker who says there have been times when she has had to buy fuel “for a few dollars on the black market.”

In order to facilitate the liquid gas service, the distribution company hopes this year to complete a project to provide 45-kilo – or larger – containers to replace the individual 10-kilo containers, which are popularly known here as “calabacitas” (little pumpkins).

“Until 1999 we cooked with kerosene or used the electric oven. My mother’s life has changed since we began getting liquid gas,” said María López, an engineer living in the eastern Havana district.

The modernisation plans call for providing manufactured gas to half of the capital’s population and liquid gas to the rest through an initiative that includes the sale of state-subsidised stoves designed for these fuels.

The programme is taking place under an investment plan begun in 1998 when, among other measures, the mixed-capital ‘Empresa Cubana de Gas S.A.’ (ECG) was formed by the socialist-run Cuban government and ECG Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of the British Trafigura.

The Cuban portion of the firm is represented by Comercial Cupet, a division of the CUPET company dedicated to exploration, production and sales of petroleum and natural gas.

ECG holds 40-year exclusive rights to operate in the Caribbean island’s western region in acquiring, packaging and distributing liquid petroleum gas.

The British partner invested in infrastructure and “we share the wholesale market with them, which includes hotels and industry,” explained Marcos Portal, Minister of Basic Industries, at a meeting of foreign entrepreneurs last month.

The enterprise is in charge of supplying the provinces of Pinar del Río, Havana, Matanzas, the municipality of Isla de la Juventud, and the city of Havana, all located on the western half of the island.

Carlos Monnerais, ECG general manager, told a press conference that he believes it is possible, within a period of two years, to expand the liquid gas service to all households in the capital that do not already consume manufactured gas.

The investment initiative to improve services includes creating a fund of some 50 million dollars for the installation and maintenance of manufactured gas networks and for constructing a gas pipeline connected to two major production plants in Havana.

CUPET holds two gas-producing installations in the capital, both based on gasoline vapour, with a production capacity of 200 million cubic metres.

The Cuban-Canadian Energas partnership is another mixed-capital investment project that has achieved crucial improvements in services for the more than 11 million people living on the island.

Energas was created in 1997 to enhance the environmental conditions of the areas adjacent to the petroleum and gas fields of Varadero, a major tourist destination located 140 km from Havana.

Thus, using the natural gas residues that were previously burned off and polluted the atmosphere, Energas is generating low- cost electricity, and producing liquid gas, gasoline and sulphur.