Posted on 07/16/2009 10:22:50 PM PDT by george76
The 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba has been shaken by the revelation that drilling for oil and natural gas is about to take place less than 50 miles off the U.S. coast - in Cuban waters.
No one knows for sure just how much oil lies off the northwest coast of Cuba, but the consensus is that it's sizable.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially came up with an estimate in 2004 of between 5 billion barrels and 10 billion barrels. But Cuba's state oil company, Cubapetroleo, recently said the undersea geology was "very similar" to Mexico's giant Cantarell oil field in the Bay of Campeche and that the Cuban field may contain 20 billion barrels, more than twice the previous estimate.
If confirmed, this would place Cuba's oil reserves among the top 20 in the world and not far behind the United States, which has 29 billion barrels. A number of U.S. geologists believe Cuba's revised estimate could actually be conservative and that it may only scratch the surface of its real potential.
The Cuban government is not only sitting on a potential oil bonanza but it has already awarded oil and gas exploration leases to companies from Canada, China, Spain, India, Venezuela and Norway. And Cuba is negotiating with Brazil's Petrobras, a company with years of experience in deepwater drilling.
If U.S. firms are forbidden by their own government to drill for oil and gas in Cuban waters, then the national oil companies of other countries will benefit while our investor-owned companies watch from the sidelines.
(Excerpt) Read more at billingsgazette.com ...
forget about the embargo.... BUY CUBA INSTEAD
20 billion barrels @ $75/barrel == $1.5 trillion
11,451,652 people in cuba
i would offer $50,000 to every citizen of cuba if they were to overthrow the cuban government, and the interim government would offer itself up to be a US commonwealth
for $572 billion we could get....
o 11 million people with $50,000 in an account looking to spend it
o no more communist dictators on the island
o no more national security concerns in cuba
o a (bigger) staging area for the southern hemisphere
o various natural resources
o a tourist destination
o $1 trillion in oil profits
We have plenty of areas oof the US where we can drill for oil...
Ending the Cuban Embargo will only enrich Castro and the Communists. It will just keep them in power longer.
We have learned, that, Free Trade with Communist China only enriches Communists....it does not change them. A Commie with money in his pocket is still a commie.
It is always the Commies and Free Traders who want to end the Cuban Embargo. Lifting the embargo will not help the Cuban people, as Castro and his goons will pocket all the money
Like to find out where this oil discovery lies exactly. I doubt that oil fields obey arbitrary borders. Also cuba is drilling 45 miles off their coast, which is 45 miles off of the FL coast. This is a much greater than the territorial waters limit but is within the 200 mile exclusive economic zone. I believe that it was Carter and the dems that agreed to split the difference with cuba.
That's what the econutz want, everybody to say "not in my backyard" to all drilling, mining, logging and nuke plants.
Don’t forget, we’d gain room to expand Gitmo.
I see tennis courts for 1 armed muzzie terrorists, a newly
expanded store with Rush’s Club Gitmo stuff, and a hugh
Waterboarding park for the whole terrorist family!
NO more calls, please.
We have a WINNER!
Cheers!
now the only problem is getting the idea into the heads of those that would implement it... before some large conglomerate decides to do it first, and sell the oil back to the US for the profits
....I was thinking the same thing.... :)
Trade is seldom a result of necessity, but what economists call, "comparative advantage". For example, we could grow banannas in the US, if we wanted to. However, it's cheaper to import them from South America where the climate is condusive to growing banannas.
It is true with oil as well, America doesn't need to import foreign oil. However, gas would remain permanently high (very high) if we didn't. Many parts of the world, especially, Saudi Arabia, can pull oil out of the ground very cheaply. I heard as low as $1 a barrel in Saudi Arabia. In the US, there would be a higher ratio of drilling and hitting a dry well than in other parts of the world. And then, those oil wells would yeild much less oil for each well that does yeild oil than those in Saudi Arabia (and I would guess, also, for those wells off the Cuban coast).
It is always the Commies and Free Traders who want to end the Cuban Embargo. Lifting the embargo will not help the Cuban people, as Castro and his goons will pocket all the money
It probably wouldn't be any worse than places like Dubai or Kuwait or Saudi Arabia where the royal family keeps most of the money. And they're not democracies either. I don't particularly care either way whether we lift the embargo on Cuba or not...... I just like to inform people :)
as enumerated by O there are 58 states or so I recall
him saying so during the campaign.
Oh, I see. Well, I guess it's true about the media being kind to him. I hadn't heard about it, but it'd be funny to see a clip of him saying it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.