OREANDA-NEWS. July 28, 2017. Cuba's state-run oil company Cupet is "encouraged" by the decision of Canada's Sherritt International to restart drilling on the shallow-water block 10 in August, a Cupet official told Argus today.

Sherritt abandoned a well it was drilling on block 10 in Cardenas Bay on the north coast in April because of wellbore instability and "unexpected geological complexities".

"Drilling of the second well is expected to commence in August this year with first results expected in the fourth quarter of this year," Sherritt said yesterday.

Cupet plans to restart a failed deepwater program by the end of this year, but is working with current prospectors including Australian independent Melbana Energy to begin drilling on onshore block 9 in the first half of 2018, the official said.

Block 9 on the north coast contains prospective recoverable resources of 637mn bl, Melbana said in April — a figure Cupet said it was treating "with caution". The two well sites to be drilled hold a combined 201mn bl of recoverable oil, Melbana said last week.

Cuba is suffering from a 30,000 b/d fuel deficit because of reduced supplies of crude and products from Venezuela, according to Cupet.

A deepwater drilling campaign lost steam in 2012 after foreign companies, including Spain's Repsol, India's ONGC, Norway's Statoil, Malaysia's Petronas, Russia's Gazpromneft and Venezuela's PdV, found no commercially exploitable deposits.

Cuba will restart its offshore exploration campaign at the end of 2017 with a bidding round for several near-shore, shallow-water and deepwater blocks, Cupet said.