IGPT KFU and CUPET agreed to expand cooperation to increase oil production and ensure complete energy independence of Cuba

On 7th of February, Representatives of Cuba’s largest oil company CUPET, Mario Miranda Marquez and Tania Perez Delgado visited the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies of Kazan Federal University. The visit was organized by the Center for Advanced Training, Quality Management and Marketing (CdoGEO), which leads the expansion of cooperation between the IGPT KFU and the Cuban oil company.

On the first day of the guests’ arrival, a meeting was organized with 18 Cuban masters, of which 17 are CUPET specialists, one is an employee of the Cuban Ministry of Energy. The Masters study Petroleum Engineering at IGPT KFU  under the Development of deposits of hard-to-recover and unconventional hydrocarbons Program.

The meeting with Cuban masters was opened by Ildus Chukmarov, Deputy Director of IGPT for Marketing, Director of the Center for Advanced Training, Quality Management and Marketing (CdoGEO). Further, the Deputy Director for Educational Activities Florida Fazlyeva presented a report on the  master’s performance to Mario Miranda and Tania Perez. Mikhail Varfolomeev, Head of the Department of Hard-To-Recover Hydrocarbons Development and Operation, IGPT spoke about the work of the masters in writing their thesis.

After talking with masters, Mario Miranda and Tania Perez met at a round table with Vice-Rector for Petroleum Technologies, Environmental Management and Earth Sciences, Director of the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies of KFU Danis Nurgaliev and Ildus Chukmarov. The partners discussed the ways of expanding cooperation in the educational area.

“We agreed on the prospects for the future,” says Danis Karlovich Nurgaliev. Since the Cuban government has allocated funds for the training of specialists, another 10 CUPET employees will enter the Petroleum Engineering Master’s Program  of IGPT. In the first year, the specialists will study the Russian language, from the next year they will begin to study along the educational trajectories in accordance with the requirements and interests of CUPET. Thus, IGPT is expecting the third group of Cuban masters.”

“During the negotiations, we agreed to implement the following three advanced training programs of CdoGEO  for CUPET specialists in 2022: “SAGD technology for the production of high-viscosity oils”, “Measurements while drilling”, “Geomechanics (advanced course)”. The courses were developed within the framework of the World-Class Science Center (WCSC) established on the basis of KFU. The programs will be implemented jointly with CdoGEO partners: PJSC Tatneft, JSC Bashneftegeofizika, PK Geonaft (Tsifra group of companies). It is worth noting that these programs were chosen by CUPET to train specialists in Russian technologies in order to produce more oil at the lowest cost in order to ensure Cuba’s energy independence. Despite difficult conditions in Cuba, CUPET management has entered into an additional agreement for the implementation of three of the 15 planned FVE programs this year. Previously, CdoGEO has already conducted 11 programs in Cuba. We also agreed to expand our cooperation within the framework of the memorandum of understanding concluded in 2021 with CEINPET, the research division of CUPET”,

“We are pleased that our cooperation with IGPT KFU continues to expand,” says Mario Miranda. The main purpose of the visit was a meeting with CUPET specialists studying on the Master’s Program. We discussed their theses and scientific research, checked how exactly they coincide with the interests of the company. In addition, an agreement was signed on the training of our specialists in three advanced training programs. It is planned that two of the courses are being implemented in Cuba and one in Kazan.”

On the second day of the visit, Mario Miranda and Tania Perez met with Vice-Rector for Educational Activities Timerkhan Alishev, who spoke about new forms of cooperation.

In IGPT, Mario Miranda and Tania Perez visited the new PVT laboratories of the World-Class Science Center located in the IGPT building on the 7, Chernyshevsky str. , as well as modernized laboratories of isotope and elemental analysis, where employees are engaged in scientific activities in the field of isotope geochemistry, in particular oil and gas geochemistry, chemostratigraphy and isotope geochronology. In the laboratory of X-ray computed tomography, the guests were shown a nanofocus research X-ray system for computed tomography. In the laboratory, scientists perform pore-scale modeling, industrial defectoscopy, and study the structures of porosity and fracturing.

It should be noted that earlier the CdoGEO team, its partners and employees of IGPT became part of the Regional Branch of the Russian Society for Friendship with Cuba in the Republic of Tatarstan. The chairman of the RSFC branch in the Republic of Tatarstan is Ildus Chukmarov.