20bn barrel oil discovery puts Cuba in the big league - Guardian

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

20bn barrel oil discovery puts Cuba in the big league
• Self-reliance beckons for communist state
• Estimate means reserves are on a par with US

Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
The Guardian, Saturday October 18 2008

Friends and foes have called Cuba many things -
a progressive beacon, a quixotic underdog, an
oppressive tyranny - but no one has called it
lucky, until now .

Mother nature, it emerged this week, appears to
have blessed the island with enough oil reserves
to vault it into the ranks of energy powers. The
government announced there may be more than
20bn barrels of recoverable oil in offshore fields
in Cuba's share of the Gulf of Mexico, more than
twice the previous estimate.

If confirmed, it puts Cuba's reserves on par
with those of the US and into the world's top 20.
Drilling is expected to start next year by Cuba's
state oil company Cubapetroleo, or Cupet.

-snip-

Havana based its dramatically higher estimate
mainly on comparisons with oil output from
similar geological structures off the coasts
of Mexico and the US. Cuba's undersea geology
was "very similar" to Mexico's giant Cantarell
oil field in the Bay of Campeche, said Tenreyro.

-snip-

[aquart]

1. LOLOLOL! Damn shame we didn't wanna make friends.

[nichomachus]

2. Ruh-oh . . . Looks like we'll have to find some reason to invade. n/t

[bhikkhu]

3. Nothing is similar to Cantarell

"Cantarell Field or Cantarell Complex is the largest oil field in Mexico and one of the largest in the world. It was discovered in 1976 by a fisherman, Rudesindo Cantarell. In November 2006 Pemex reported that Cantarell has produced 11.429 billion barrels of oil.<1>

It is located 80 km offshore in the Bay of Campeche. This complex comprises four major fields: Akal (by far the largest), Nohoch, Chac and Kutz. The reservoirs are formed from carbonate breccia of Upper Cretaceous age, the rubble from the asteroid impact that created the Chicxulub Crater."...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantarell_Field

Cantarell is a one-off, and its highly unlikely that Cuba has found their own version.

[hatrack]

4. "If confirmed . . . . "

EOM

[kestrel91316]

5. Guess we'll have to invent a WMD problem or terraist infestation or

some such crap in Cuba to justify an invasion..........