Cuba's government announced that starting 1 January 2005, all revenues earned by state enterprises must pass through the central bank, tightening Havana's grip on hard currency inflows. The directive, signed by bank chief Francisco Soberon, arrived days after President Fidel Castro disclosed an offshore oil deposit estimated at more than 100 million barrels near Santa Cruz del Norte, on the island's north coast.
The find, Cuba's first major discovery since 1999, is to be developed jointly by a Cuban state company and Canada's Sherritt International. Castro said the crude is cleaner than other domestic production, raising prospects for reduced dependence on imported energy.
Cuba had been receiving 53,000 barrels of crude per day from Venezuela since the Soviet Union's collapse cut off subsidized supplies. The island's own oil, heavy in sulfur, required costly processing before it could be used. Under the new controls, only the central bank would be authorized to move hard currency abroad; state firms would need special permission to do so.
The announcement followed other recent economic measures. In November, Castro removed the US dollar from circulation after more than a decade as co-legal tender, requiring Cubans to exchange their dollars for locally issued convertible pesos. Around the same time, at a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Castro made clear Cuba would chart its own course rather than adopt China's market-oriented approach.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in December 2004, in its own words.