Posted on 05/07/2015 5:45:12 AM PDT by thackney
Cuba unveiled new data on Wednesday it said confirmed there were billions of barrels of oil beneath its Gulf of Mexico waters but admitted there was little interest in new exploration even with the thaw in U.S. relations.
The United States and Cuba have vowed to restore diplomatic relations after more than 50 years of animosity, but the comprehensive U.S. trade embargo remains in place.
While U.S. tourism, transportation and agriculture companies position themselves for Cuban business, oil companies have proven less eager since three exploratory wells came up dry in 2012. Low oil prices and new opportunities in Mexico's liberalized oil sector are also seen depressing interest.
"Despite the opening we haven't encountered U.S. company interest," Pedro Sorzano, commercial director of state oil monopoly CubaPetroleo (Cupet), told reporters at Cuba's annual geological sciences convention.
Cuba hopes the discovery of oil offshore will free it from dependence on other countries, such as socialist ally Venezuela currently and the Soviet Union previously.
Cupet Exploration Director Rafael de Jesus Tenreyro said the new data would be presented at various international events.
"The study confirms the zone's potential," he said.
For over a decade Communist-run Cuba has asserted its Exclusive Economic Zone off the northwest coast holds more than 20 billion barrels of undiscovered crude.
The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated a more modest 5 billion to 7 billion barrels.
(Excerpt) Read more at rigzone.com ...
Why would anyone be interested? Even without the embargo, they are a Communist state, so they could seize the property of any company that gets involved there anytime they feel like it, just like Chavez has done in Venezuela.
Lol, can I spell it out?
1. Oil companies set up infrastructure.
2. Oil companies start pumping oil.
3. Cuba makes (wage/environmental) complaints.
4. Cuba nationalizes oil production, gets to pump oil with out building anything.
I would think the main reason is several other companies have already explored the area and found it lacking in commercial quantities.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3238837/posts
Brazil’s Petrobras, Malaysia’s Petronas, Russia’s Zarubezhneft and Spain’s Repsol have all looked for oil off the Cuban coast, but success has so far eluded them. Repsol had the most public failure, spending $150 million over a decade, but ultimately gave up its program in 2012 after drilling a dry hole.
If the oil industry truly believed the Cuban coast had significant amounts of oil, Molchanov said, it would have drawn in British, French and other European companies that have world-class skill at finding deep-water reservoirs.
“Cuba, I think, is inconsequential as the oil industry goes,” he said.
Yep.
See Venezuela.
drink it
Until Cuba returns nationalized US assets plus interest, the US should tell them to pound sand. I would not lift any embargo on Cuba until both Castros are dead; I would not give them the personal satisfaction. I remember the 1962 Missile Crisis; may the Castros rot in Hell for that.
Except Russia will then come in and develop it unless we somehow have the right to restrict them being there.
Instead, under this President Obama Russia, China or Radical Islam would be financed through government grants to undermine this country.
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