Cuban Oil Renews Embargo Debate
A Canadian firm is among the companies whose move to drill for oil along Cuba's coastline has raised the eyebrows of oil executives -- and given energy-thirsty America pause to reconsider its 45-year trade embargo against the Communist country.
Canada's Sherritt International Corp. has exploration rights in four of the 59 deep-sea blocks that the Cuban government created in 2005.
Cuba created the blocks after a report by the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed the North Cuba Basin held up to 9.3 billion barrels of crude oil and up to 21.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Companies from Canada and China had already been prospecting for oil in Cuban waters.
The fields have rawn the interest of companies from China, India, Norway, Spain, Venezuela and Brazil, but the U.S. is cut off due to the embargo.
Kirby Jones of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association in Washington, D.C., says Cuba becoming a big-time oil producer makes the embargo too costly for the U.S. to maintain.
Our choice is: Are we going to let those other countries take that oil? Or are we going to look at our strategic interests and recognize that very close to our shores is a substantial quantity of oil that is going to be exploited?
In May, two bills were introduced in the U.S. Congress that would exempt Big Oil from the embargo.
That scenario, however could incense Cuban-American voters in Florida -- not exactly what U.S. President George W. Bush, or his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, would prefer three months before U.S. midterm elections.
Letting U.S. companies drill for oil off Cuba would damage our ability to press the Cuban government on other issues, such as human rights.
Canada's Sherritt International Corp. has exploration rights in four of the 59 deep-sea blocks that the Cuban government created in 2005.
Cuba created the blocks after a report by the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed the North Cuba Basin held up to 9.3 billion barrels of crude oil and up to 21.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Companies from Canada and China had already been prospecting for oil in Cuban waters.
The fields have rawn the interest of companies from China, India, Norway, Spain, Venezuela and Brazil, but the U.S. is cut off due to the embargo.
Kirby Jones of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association in Washington, D.C., says Cuba becoming a big-time oil producer makes the embargo too costly for the U.S. to maintain.
Our choice is: Are we going to let those other countries take that oil? Or are we going to look at our strategic interests and recognize that very close to our shores is a substantial quantity of oil that is going to be exploited?
In May, two bills were introduced in the U.S. Congress that would exempt Big Oil from the embargo.
That scenario, however could incense Cuban-American voters in Florida -- not exactly what U.S. President George W. Bush, or his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, would prefer three months before U.S. midterm elections.
Letting U.S. companies drill for oil off Cuba would damage our ability to press the Cuban government on other issues, such as human rights.
posted by Ottawa Gas Prices | 7:10 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home