US frets at Cuba oil exploration

[alp227]

Marc Frank, Financial Times

A huge oil drilling platform will sink deepwater wells off Cuba next week in a move that has caused angst in the US at the prospect of significant oil discoveries that could alter Cuba’s economic future and Havana’s relations with Washington.

Cuba’s largely unexplored share of the Gulf of Mexico is thought to contain billions of barrels of oil and gas equivalent and has already drawn more foreign investment than any other sector of the economy.

“The discovery of even modest amounts of oil would be significant for Cuba,” said Ricardo Torres Perez, deputy director of Havana University’s Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy.

“Cuba would become less energy dependent and might eventually become an energy exporter; new credit and foreign investment would materialise, along with refining and service jobs”.

full: http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ed255d6a-4129-11e1-8c33-00144feab49a.html

[Blue_Tires]

1. I guess the ol' boys in Houston are pissed that they didn't tap it first

[Hugabear]

2. Watch how quickly rethugs reverse their anti-Cuba policies

The more oil that Cuba produces, the more you'll see rethugs relaxing their anti-Cuba policies. All in the name of "fostering democracy" of course.

[Lint Head]

3. This is the very reason transportion fueled by fossil fuels should go the way of the

horse and carriage.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Because we didn't steal it from them first?

[Mnemosyne]

5. I heard that Cuba and Iran conspired and committed 9/11 together. n/t

[dipsydoodle]

6. Tough

.

[bahrbearian]

7. They must be hiding WMDs

[Bacchus4.0]

8. They need to do something. Cuba can't count on energy subsidies from Chavez forever n/t

s

[Octafish]

9. Zapata Offshore was most active in the area.

[ThoughtCriminal]

10. Can we slant drill from Key West?

Because. By Gawd, we should be able to suck up that oil with a bigger straw then those dag-burn commies! You can bet your sweet BP on that!

[hughee99]

11. Good news, and we don't have to be concerned

about environmental damage since deep water offshore drilling is only unsafe when the US or European companies do it.

[flamingdem]

12. I don't remember the US being so concerned when the BP

spill almost destroyed the Caribbean

[Bacchus4.0]

14. I seem to remember alot of outrage and disgust over the BP spill in the US n/t

s

[flamingdem]

16. I'm saying that the US didn't step up to help prepare Cuba

when it looked like Key West could be impacted etc.

They didn't take responsibility, but now there's an implication that
Cuba could ruin US territory without discussion of how the US almost
ruined Cuba.

[Bacchus4.0]

17. well, I hope Cuba takes all necessary precautions given the BP spill that "almost ruined" them n/t

s

[flamingdem]

18. If you followed it for a while it was out of control

and that would have contaminated the region.

[cstanleytech]

13. Odd how so few are complaining about an oil platform when its not the US

doing it in the gulf.

[unkachuck]

15. and there's nothing worse....

....than a fretting United States....tough shit,

"...using less than 10 per cent of US technology..."

....this is what our corporate fascists really don't like....and a new breath of fresh economic air being brought by Italy, China and oil to the islands' Communist economy....parish the thought....

"Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the House foreign relations committee, has sought to introduce legislation that would place sanctions on participating foreign companies."

....the 'if we can't have the oil, nobody can' attitude of Republicans amazes me....and where is it written, that anything, anywhere on the planet, belongs to us?

[flamingdem]

19. The idiocy of the US policy is exactly that

we don't have relationships with a country with a highly intelligent populace that loves the USA for the most part and instead the US policy hands Cuba to the Chinese, thanks right wing Miami idiots.