Oil spill: a boon for Cuba? The Gulf oil spill could mean more drilling off Cuban coast.

[pampango]

Source: Global Post

The worst oil spill in U.S. history may not be such a bad thing for Cuba — assuming that the crude now fouling up the Gulf never reaches the island's shores.

Cuba has 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in undersea deposits off its northwest coast, according to U.S. Geological Survey estimates, enough to put the country on par with major regional exporters like Colombia and Ecuador. Cuban geologists say there may be four times that amount in vast hydrocarbon pools under Cuban-controlled waters farther out into the Gulf.

The Castro government has already signed deals with nearly a dozen foreign oil companies interested in drilling those waters, including Brazil’s Petrobras, Norway’s Statoil and a unit of India’s ONGC. It has also extended invitations to U.S. oil companies, which are currently barred from doing business with Cuba under the half-century-old trade embargo.

Cuba and its foreign partners are moving forward with their own offshore agenda. According to Reuters, Spain’s oil giant REPSOL has contracted for a Chinese-built rig that could begin drilling in Cuban waters later this year. That plan raises new concerns about the possibility of environmental damage to Florida if an accident were to occur on a rig in nearby Cuban waters.

Still, Cuba energy experts say that the Deepwater Horizon disaster has forced the U.S. government to allow American oil companies to begin to engage with Cuba, a step that could chip away at the trade embargo. An energy bill in the U.S. Senate sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) includes a provision that would essentially exempt U.S. oil companies from the Cuba trade embargo, arguing it would be in the interest of national security.

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/commerce/100602/oil-drilling

[dipsydoodle]

1. It's all in the interest of national security

including the current mess in the Gulf. It's simple fact of life that the US military cannot function without oil.

[Mika]

2. I heard Ricardo Alarcon (prez of Cuba's assembly,Cuba's actual political leader) say that safety....

.... measures would be reviewed regarding these oil projects. Cuba's representatives have had a stern wake up call with Deep Horizon's blow up. Alarcon explained that dual relief wells and acoustic BOPs are the standard Cuba requires for exploration wells, but they will be reviewing enacting more strident safety measures.

If US Big Oil gets the go ahead to deal with Cuba, there are many big issues to be resolved. Such as Cuban settlement of expropriations of US Big Oil properties since they withdrew from Cuba (not wanting to pay the taxes) when Cuba nationalized their energy infrastructures. It is US government policy (NOT Cuban policy) that prevents US based settlement to be made with Cuba under the "Trading with the Enemy Act". Cuba has settled with all other non US based expropriations in arbitration since the 1960's.

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