The Cuba-Russia cooperation in oil exploration on Friday strengthened further as Russia opened an office of its oil enterprise JSC Zarubezhneft in Havana.

The opening of the Russian oil giant office was deemed as a boost to enhancing the Cuban capability to increase oil and natural gas production on the Caribbean island.

Manuel Marrero, advisor to the Cuban ministry of basic industry, said the opening of the new office is a follow-up to a series of oil and natural gas cooperation agreements signed recently between the two countries.

Under the agreements, Russia will help Cuba in its exploration and extraction from the secondary reserves in the old deposit of Boca de Jaruco in western Cuba.

According to the Cuban National Statistics Office, Cuba extracted 2,731,000 tons of oil in 2009 and less than 3 million tons in 2008.

The production of natural gas also decreased in 2009 with an output of 1,161,000 cubic meters, as against 1,515,000 cubic meters in 2008.

The Cuban government announced in late 2008 that the country may have more than 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil in offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

For the time being, 41 percent of the Cuban oil consumption is from domestic production and the country imports the remainder from Venezuela.