Will Cuba's offshore oil discovery finally break the US trade embargo?

[struggle4progress]

AP
Saturday, July 29, 2006

... In July 2004, however, the Spanish oil company Repsol-YPF, in partnership with Cuba's state oil company, CUPET, identified five fields it classified as "high-quality" in the deep water of the Florida Straits, 20 miles (32 kilometres) northeast of Havana.

Seven months later, a report by the US Geological Survey confirmed it: The North Cuba Basin held a substantial quantity of oil - 4.6 billion to 9.3 billion barrels of crude and 9.8 trillion to 21.8 trillion cubic feet (278 billion cubic metres to 617 billion cubic metres) of natural gas.

Cuba wasted no time, dividing the 74,000-square-mile (120,000-square-kilometre) area into 59 exploration blocks, and then welcoming the foreign oil conglomerates with offers of production-sharing agreements ...

Then, in May, Spain's Repsol-YPF announced it was partnering with India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and Norsk Hydro ASA of Norway to explore for oil and gas in six of the 59 deep-water blocks along Cuba's maritime border with the United States. (Sherritt International Corporation, the Canadian oil company, has acquired exploration rights in four of the deep-sea blocks.) ...

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20060728T200000-0500_110018_OBS_WILL_CUBA_S_OFFSHORE_OIL_DISCOVERY_FINALLY_BREAK_THE_US_TRADE_EMBARGO_.asp

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Hopefully it won't lead to a US invasion.....n/t

[peacetalksforall]

2. Does anyone believe that our corporate political partners know

exactly where all the oil is on the planet? Does anyone not believe that they have used taxpayer money to explore everywhere including from space using super duper technology that we paid for?

I believe there is a good chance that we knew it was there and were waiting to acquire it with the passing of Castro.

If true, it's fun, because Spain got there first. So much for four decades of embargos - even after the Berlin Wall came down and Ronald Reagan died.

[Pokey Anderson]

3. Very interesting.

For now, it seems Cuba and Venezuela are trading medical personnel such as trained doctors for oil -- doctors from Cuba for oil from Venezuela.

[Judi Lynn]

4. There's a little more involved: Cuba gets oil at a cheaper price,

but it still pays for its oil from Venezuela.

Welcome to D.U. :hi: :hi: :hi:

[Pokey Anderson]

5. Yeah. But, the essence is they've each been "trading"

something they have more of, for something they have less of.

If you look at foreign policy rationally (I know, what a concept), if the US is willing to buy oil from Venezuela (and we do, a lot), then the US should be willing to buy stuff from Cuba.

Both are thorns in the side of the Bush admin., but so what. Dollars are at stake here!

Thanks for the welcome.