From Russian frost to Cuban sands

Talk about good labor-management relations! The Russian oil giant Rosneft has budgeted 157 million rubles this year to send 1,800 of its employees on an all-paid winter vacation to Cuba, Dec. 20-Jan. 15, the Russian media report.

That’s 2 million 298,441 dollars at the current rate of exchange.

A second Caribbean holiday has been set for April 20 to May 10, according to Rosneft’s procurement website.

Individual vouchers of 87,000 rubles each ($1,495) will be made available to the employees of three Rosneft subsidiaries, Yuganskneftegaz, Angarsk Petrochemical Co., and Samotlorneftegaz, according to the Rosneft website.

The vouchers cover airfare to Cuba, hotel accommodations, meals, shuttle service, spas, excursions, etc.

The amounts allotted are 34.8 million, 13.7 million and 8.7 million rubles, respectively. Rosneft’s home office in Moscow has excluded itself from the holiday to Cuba but the company is budgeting 74.3 million rubles ($1.277 million) for vacation vouchers for Crimea.

In 2013, 70,400 Russian tourists visited Cuba, down from 86,000 in 2012, according to official sources. Figures for this year are not yet complete.

On July 11 in Havana, Rosneft’s CEO, Igor Sechin, and Juan Torres Naranjo, general director of Cuba Petróleo (CUPET), signed a cooperation agreement in the presence of presidents Vladimir Putin and Raúl Castro.

Rosneft and another Russian oil company, Zarubezhneft, have agreed to help CUPET explore offshore in Cuba, which has limited onshore production and depends on Venezuela for its supply of oil.