Last July Rose Petroleum plc announced upcoming negotiations between Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Rose Gypsum Limited (Rose Gypsum), and Empresa Materiales De Construccion Ciego de Avila (“EMC”). Rose Petroleum, and its technical team supported both Grenzebach BSH, the German equipment and services company, and GPM Engineering Inc. have been in the negotiation stages of a project with EMC.
The proposed gypsum project involves the construction of a gypsum manufacturing plant for both the domestic market and for export to the Caribbean market. It will focus on the manufacturing of gypsum products such as calcined gypsum, ceiling and interior panels.
Rose Petroleum is also meeting with CUPET, Cuba’s national oil company in a discussion of the acquisition of oil and gas licenses.
From Rose Petroleum:
“The Group’s current activity in Cuba was introduced by Earth Source Investment Inc. in May 2016, who also contributed to and helped secure the funding for the project.
As announced on 4th July 2016, Rose, with the assistance of its technical team supported by both Grenzebach BSH (GmbH) (“Grenzebach”) and GPM engineering (“GPM”), has been negotiating with Empressa Materiales de Construccion (“EMC”), the local state company, for the past six months to construct the proposed gypsum processing and manufacturing facilities to supply the domestic and Caribbean market with various gypsum products including, but not limited to, gypsum wall and ceiling panels. Multiple models and plant facilities have been discussed involving various end products and production rates and Rose put forward its proposal on the agreed capacity and products at the end of the year, although the process is no longer exclusive to Rose. Having been through multiple versions of both capacity and end product requirements, it was an extremely challenging process and the Board of Rose would like to take this opportunity to thank the technical team, especially Grenzebach and GPM, for their continuing support. We are now awaiting official response to our proposal and look forward to updating the market accordingly.
As a result of the Group developing good relationships in Cuba, we have now engaged with the Cuban national oil company, CUPET, and are in early stage discussions regarding oil & gas licenses. We feel that the oil and energy sectors in Cuba offer excellent potential and hope to be able to progress our discussions.
Matthew Idiens, CEO, commented: “We have been making progress on all fronts and with the change in political regime in the US, we feel the incoming administration will be very supportive of our industry and feel the future is encouraging for US energy, both in terms of oil and gas and nuclear industries. We hope to be able to announce the granting of the 3D permit in coming months which will enable us to commence the realization of the significant potential value of our Paradox acreage.
“Having presented our proposal on the Cuban gypsum project, we are awaiting the official response and we have opened up discussion with CUPET in respect of oil & gas licenses, which we hope we can develop further.”
Zoe Veraz is a content writer, freelance journalist and regular contributor to the Cuba Business Report.
