Cuba ready to drill for oil deeper than BP

[El Presidente]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/29/v-fu...eeper-than.html

Cuba ready to drill for oil deeper than BP

Cuba is picking up the pace on efforts to search for oil and gas. Exploratory rigs could start working as soon as next year, just miles off the Florida coast.

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BY LESLEY CLARK AND SARA KENNEDY

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WASHINGTON -- Cuba is expected to begin drilling offshore for oil and gas as soon as next year with equipment that will go deeper than the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, industry experts say.

The Spanish energy company, Repsol, which drilled an exploratory well in 2004 off the coast near Havana, has contracted to drill the first of several exploratory wells with a semi-submersible rig that is expected to arrive in Cuba at the end of the year, said Jorge Piñon, an energy expert and visiting research fellow at the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. He said the rig is expected to drill down 5,600 feet in an area about 22 miles north of Havana and 65 miles south of the Marquesas Keys.

The development comes as 20 Cuban scientists joined their American and Mexican counterparts at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota this week to finalize a long-term marine research and conservation plan for the three countries.

Luis Alberto Barreras Cañizo, who led the Cuban delegation as a representative of Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, confirmed the plans for exploration. ``Cuba needs to find its oil, it's a resource Cuba needs,'' he told the Bradenton Herald in an interview.

Environmentalists suggested the prospect of rigs just 45 miles from Florida's coastline could intensify pressure for the Obama administration to engage in talks with its Cold War antagonist to prevent ecological damage.

``A policy of isolationism doesn't benefit anyone. We have a selfish interest in talking with Cuba,'' said David Guggenheim, a conference organizer and senior fellow at The Ocean Foundation in Washington. ``At a minimum, you need a good Rolodex.''

AFFECTING U.S.

Guggenheim has been working on marine research and conservation issues with Cuba for nearly a decade and assisted the country with satellite images and models to track the trajectory of the Gulf spill. He said computer modeling shows that an oil spill off Cuba's coast could end up in U.S. waters -- chiefly the Florida Keys and the state's east coast.

``The Gulf isn't going to respect any boundaries when it comes to oil spills,'' he said.

Barreras said he's not worried about the ecological effects of offshore drilling, saying, ``the Cuban environmental framework is very progressive.''

A State Department spokeswoman said the United States expects that oil exploration companies would have ``adequate safeguards in place'' and that U.S. companies could get a license through the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to help with oil spill prevention efforts in Cuba.

But FIU's Piñon, who argued in a paper in May that U.S.-Cuba policy would ``foreclose the ability to respond effectively'' to an oil disaster, said such permits could take weeks. ``You can't put a spill on hold to wander through the bureaucracy,'' he said.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, accused the Cuban regime of saying ``anything to attract investors and convince them to open their wallets.''

``The regime is in tough economic straits and to keep itself afloat, is now looking at the oil industry, among others, to throw it a lifeline,'' she said.

She warned that with Cuba's emerging relationship with Iran, investments in Cuba's petroleum sector could provide Iran with ``back-door access to resources and markets that it would otherwise be blocked from under new sanctions.''

Daniel Whittle, Cuba program director for the Environmental Defense Fund, who recently returned from the island, said Cuban government officials are ``moving forward as quickly as possible'' on securing domestic oil production because it now imports most oil from Venezuela.

Whittle said the country is ``taking a very close look at the lessons learned from the BP oil spill. I can say they're determined to do it right. The international consequences of doing it wrong are all something they'd like to avoid.''

Piñon said it took Cuba time to secure a rig that didn't violate the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba -- which prevent vessels with more than 10 percent U.S. parts from operating in Cuba. He said the Italian rig, the Scarabeo 9, has a blow out preventer manufactured in the U.S. It is expected to drill as many as nine other wells off Cuba's coast.

UNSUCCESSFUL

Florida lawmakers have already sought -- unsuccessfully -- to squash Cuba's efforts.

When news reports of a potential deal with Repsol emerged last June, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson asked the Obama administration to withdraw from a 1977 Maritime Boundary Agreement with Cuba to pressure its government. National Security Advisor James Jones, however, said withdrawal ``would have no discernible effect'' on the Cuban government and could create further boundary claim disputes.

Nelson tried a similar approach with the Bush administration in 2007 when Cuba was talking to Brazil about oil exploration. Administration officials also turned him down.

Guggenheim said he was encouraged that the State Department had granted visas to 20 Cuban delegates to attend the marine and conservation conference -- a higher number than ever.

The attendees discussed a tri-national plan of action for protection of coral reefs, sea turtles, fish, sharks and other marine life. ``We can't protect our own waters without working closely with Mexico and Cuba,'' he said.

Bradenton Herald reporter Sara Kennedy reported from Sarasota.

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