Cuba gets ready to tap it`s estimated 5 billion barrels of oil, raising sentiment in the U.S.

Sheikh Fidel: Cuba drills for oil – U.S. complaining about potential spills
A recent U.S. Geological Survey says there could be 5 billion barrels of undiscovered oil reserves in the north Cuba basin. As Cuba finally taps its oil reserves, the U.S. claim they are ‘unprepared for spill’

William Booth
Washington Post
March 1, 2012 4:59am

DESMOND BOYLAN/REUTERS - A Chinese-built drilling rig known as Scarabeo 9 is seen off the coast of Havana in January. Spanish oil company Repsol YPF has begun drilling the first well in Cuba's long-awaited exploration of offshore oilfields.

As energy companies from Spain, Russia and Malaysia line up to drill for oil in Cuban waters 60 miles from the Florida Keys, U.S. agencies are struggling to cobble together emergency plans to protect fragile reefs, sandy beaches and a multibillion-dollar tourism industry in the event of a spill.

Drawing up contingency plans to confront a possible spill is much more difficult because of the economic embargo against Cuba. U.S. law bars most American companies — including oil services and spill containment contractors — from conducting business with the communist island. The embargo, now entering its 50th year, also limits direct government-to-government talks.

Jorge R Pinon/Washington Post

In the vacuum, a Coast Guard admiral in Miami and a dozen technocrats from Cuba and the United States have begun to quietly engage in an awkward partnership of necessity to protect their coastlines, separated by politics but united by the mighty Gulf Stream.

“This is a case of Cold War ideology colliding with 21st-century environmental policy, and it is the environment that is at risk,” said Lee Hunt, president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors.
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5 billion barrels

Last month, Repsol, a Spanish oil and gas company, using a state-of-the-art, Norwegian-designed, Chinese-built, semi-submersible rig called Scarabeo 9, began drilling the first in a series of deep-water exploratory wells in the Florida Straits, at a cost of $500,000 a day.

According to a 2004 study by the U.S. Geological Survey, there could be 5 billion barrels of undiscovered oil reserves in the north Cuba basin. While some U.S. lawmakers might not like it, Cuba has every right to drill for oil in its own waters.

Congressional Republicans representing Cuban American communities in Florida say the Obama administration should have imposed sanctions and threatened foreign companies such as Repsol from doing business in Cuba.
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