MOSCOW PAPER WARNS OF OIL EXPORTS TO CUBA

Soviet exports of crude oil and refined products to Cuba "will blow a sizable hole" in the U.S.S.R.'s potential hard currency earnings this year despite reduced oil deliveries, the Moscow newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta warns. "Of course," the newspaper said, "Soviet oil exports to Cuba are now figured in dollars, not rubles, in accordance with world market prices since Jan. 1, 1991. However, these 'dollars' are as fictitious as the rubles of previous years. "The credits will never

June 24, 1991

"Of course," the newspaper said, "Soviet oil exports to Cuba are now figured in dollars, not rubles, in accordance with world market prices since Jan. 1, 1991. However, these 'dollars' are as fictitious as the rubles of previous years.

"The credits will never be repaid, and practically everyone in the Soviet government understands this."

Nezavisimaya Gazeta said the U.S.S.R. has guaranteed Havana 200,000 b/d of oil for 1991.

Prior to Moscow's sharp 1990 reduction in oil exports, Cuba obtained about half of its Soviet account oil from Latin American countries under an arrangement established to reduce the U.S.S.R.'s long haul tanker delivery costs.

Total Soviet account oil exports to Cuba, including deliveries by Latin American countries, peaked at 262,000 b/d in 1985.