Russia's Zarubezhneft begins industrial exploitation of Boca de Jaruco field in Cuba

MOSCOW. March 7 (Interfax) - Zarubezhneft's Cuban project, Boca de Jaruco, transitioned from pilot production to the exploitation phase in January 2025.

The field produces extra-viscous, extra-heavy oil (natural bitumen) from carbonate deposits (layer M) using thermal steam methods. The company has quadrupled its annual production over the past five years, while the stock of production wells has remained unchanged at seven wells.

"Specific technological indicators of Boca de Jaruco have been brought to the level of leading global projects with bituminous oil reserves. The steam-oil ratio decreased 66% in 2024, from 10.3 to 3.6 t/t [tonnes of steam per tonne of oil]. The catalytic aquathermolysis technology developed by Zarubezhneft has increased production at individual wells 1.5-fold," an article published in the Oil Industry magazine which was prepared based on materials from Zarubezhneft's corporate communications department said.

The geological exploration work conducted by the company allowed Cuba to register 200 million tonnes of geological reserves and 700 million tonnes of resources on the state balance sheet, it said.

Zarubezhneft signed an agreement with the Cuban national company Cupet in June 2011 for pilot production, further exploration and the application of secondary methods at the Boca de Jaruco field to increase oil recovery. The agreement is valid for 25 years.

The company began pilot production of layer M in 2016. At the time, the volume of geological oil resources in the surrounding area was estimated at 3.7 billion tonnes. In case of positive results during the pilot phase, Zarubezhneft planned to proceed with full-scale development, involving the drilling of 30 new wells with investment of around 100 million euros.