Posted on 05/10/2006 4:52:33 PM PDT by saganite
Havana, May 10: Cuba has struck a deal with Spanish, Norwegian and Indian oil companies to drill in the 1.6-km waters of the Gulf of Mexico, industry sources and diplomats said.The possibility of striking oil in Cuban waters just 120 km off US shores at a time of soaring fuel prices and rising global demand has set off a political debate over whether US companies, sidelined by American sanctions, should be allowed to explore there.
Contracts will be signed on May 23 in Havana between Spanish major Repsol YPF, Norway’s Norsk Hydro and ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, they said yesterday.
Drilling will most likely not begin until 2008 due to a tight market for deep-sea exploration rigs as the world’s search for oil intensifies under pressure from the high prices, one industry official said.
Repsol found good-quality light oil in Cuba’s economic exclusion zone of the Gulf of Mexico in 2004, but not in commercially viable quantities.
The Spanish company will complete seismic studies by the end of this month to determine where next to drill with its two new partners, said the official, who asked not to be named.
“There might be quite good opportunities for finding something, and things would really change then. It’s very exciting,” a European diplomat said.
The US Geological Survey estimated last year that the north Cuba basin could contain some 4.6 billion barrels of oil, with a high-end potential of 9.3 billion barrels
Once again US is a day late and a dollar short. At the average range that would be 1 million barrels a day for 18 years.
They can't do this. They have no environmental permit (sarc)
What struck me about this was the estimate for the oil in that small area of the gulf puts it near the ANWAR estimate if you use the upper end of the range. Wonder how much more oil is out there in the forbidden drilling zones off Florida, the East Coast and California?
Ohhhhh, what about the children, the birds, the whales, the air, trees, water, yada, yada, yada......
Where are the international environmental wahckos or the US druids for that matter? Where's Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pukeloski, etc. Aren't they concerned about Cuba's "pristine" environment as much as ours?
Meanwhile, the yellow pub pols scratch their butts and do nothing while the rest of the world drills and refines oil.
"The paper also cited an Interior Department study that said the U.S. continental shelf contained 115 billion barrels of oil and 633 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. That would be enough oil to satisfy U.S. demand, at current consumption levels, for 16 years and enough natural gas for 25 years, according to the Times."
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/09/news/economy/oil_cuba/index.htm?cnn=yes
You're wrong about the pols doing nothing. They're trying to pass a law that would prevent Cuba from drilling there! I guess it's an attitude that if we're not going to have an energy policy then it's wrong for Cuba to have one as well.
[Wonder how much more oil is out there in the forbidden drilling zones off Florida, the East Coast and California?]
A retired ceo of BP once said their is more oil in the gulf of Mexico than all Arab nations combined. But the lib enviormentalist kooks control the senate pubs, unfortunately.
And republicans wonder why conservatives don't vote for them anymore?
"Wonder how much more oil is out there in the forbidden drilling zones off Florida, the East Coast and California?"
I'm guessing all that we and our Children and our Grandchildren to the 10th generation could consume.
We really are pretty stupid for the last remaining Super Power, aren't we? ;)
I don't think Cuba is restrained by our Republican Congress and President.
Great! More oil in the pool means lower prices. One question to the drilling companies. what if after the oil starts flowing "El Presidente" decides to nationalize like his friend Hugo?
Don't hold your breath waiting for green peace to chug into an oil platform or chain themselves to fences. Castro and his cohorts can drill all they want.
So the Leftist Castro-loving Envirowhackos will now have to make a choice whether they love Communism or Environmentalism more.
They love communism more, the environment is BS used to attack Capitalism.
Correct! You beat me to it.
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