Institute visited by Minister of Higher Education of Cuba
Minister Walter Baluja Garcia and his colleagues arrived on 8 June. They were met by President of Kazan University Riyaz Minzaripov, Director of the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies and Vice-Rector for Earth Sciences Danis Nurgaliev, and Deputy Director of IGPT for Marketing Ildus Chukmarov.
The Cuban guests started their tour at the History Museum, where they were familiarized, among other items, with a permanent display dedicated to Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), founder of the Soviet state.
The delegation then proceeded to IGPT, where Dr Nurgaliev and Dr Chukmarov spoke about the Institute’s priorities and cooperation with Cuba.
“Cuba has large oil reserves, which the national oil and gas company CUPET produces, including at the Boca de Jaruco field. We are cooperating with this company in technology and education. Since Cuba’s main reserves are high-viscosity oil, KFU scientists have developed special catalysts to enhance oil recovery. Two batches of the reagent have already been delivered to the field, which have helped significantly increase oil production at the field. Now we are preparing the next batch of even more effective catalyst. Irek Mukhamatdinov, Senior Research Associate of the Laboratory of Enhanced Oil Recovery, has received the Russian Presidential Award this year for successful application of in-situ oil enrichment with catalytic water-thermolysis technology. And today the CUPET management has set a new task for us – how to achieve removal of sulfur from oil to produce diesel fuel and gasoline in Cuba. Another task is to find new oil deposits. That’s why cooperation with Cuba continues to develop,” comments Danis Nurgaliev.
Ildus Chukmarov, among his other duties, is the Chairman of the Tatarstan Regional Branch of the Russia-Cuba Friendship Society, an institution dating back to 1964.
On his proposals for further cooperation, Dr Chukmarov noted, “From 2018 to 2022, our institute graduated two groups of masters – 25 people – in the Petroleum Engineering program. We also train employees through supplementary education. From 2018 to 2022, a total of 267 CUPET workers and managers were trained in Havana and Kazan. In continuation of our cooperation, we propose to implement the following initiatives for CUPET employees: professional training in Cuba; professional retraining (a three-month program); and a two-year program with KFU’s professional retraining diploma. We propose to include Kazan Federal University’s professional retraining and advanced training programs in Petroleum Engineering and Geology to the list of programs financed by the quotas of the Cuba-Russia intergovernmental agreement. This proposal will increase production, reduce costs and ensure energy independence of Cuba, which will ultimately improve the quality and standard of living of the population of the Republic of Cuba.”
Employees of the Cuban embassy assured that steps are already being made in the direction that Dr Chukmarov mentioned.
