Fearing US reaction, Cuba makes public full-scale offshore oil exploration plans

Wednesday, May 11th 2011 - 01:34 UTC

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The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is very much present

Cuba hopes to counter US worries over its plans to start its first full-scale offshore oil exploration in a rare presentation this week to an energy audience outside the island.

Officials involved in Cuba's oil project are expected to discuss drilling plans and safety standards during a two-day meeting of international drilling contractors opening on Thursday in the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago.

In the wake of last year's BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, some US officials and politicians have voiced concern over Cuba's drilling plans and whether it can ensure its offshore drilling will be safe.

One congressman from Florida has introduced legislation that would authorize punitive action against companies who drill off Cuba, citing environmental dangers.

“This will pretty much be the first time the Cuban deepwater drilling project managers will make a presentation of what their regulatory requirements are going to be for the companies that drill in Cuban waters,” said Lee Hunt, president of the Houston-based International Association of Drilling Contractors, which is organizing the conference.

“There is a lot of incomplete information out there,” he said.

Offshore oil exploration is important for Cuba, which is just 145 kilometres from the southernmost tip of Florida. Cuba needs oil to sustain its battered economy and end its dependence on oil-rich ally Venezuela.

After repeated delays, large-scale exploration by Cuba in its part of the Gulf of Mexico is set to begin later this year with the arrival of a Chinese-built drilling rig to be used first by a consortium led by Spanish oil company Repsol YPF.

It will then be passed on to other non-U.S. oil companies for exploration in drilling leases they hold in Cuba's part of the Gulf of Mexico. Other companies in the -consortium include Norway's Statoil and ONGC Videsh, a unit of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp). No US firms are allowed to participate in the Cuban oil project because of the decades-old US trade embargo preventing them from doing business in Cuba.

Cuba has said it may have 20 billion barrels or more of oil in its untapped oil fields, but the US Geological Survey has estimated a more modest 4.6 billion barrels.