Oil find off Cuba stokes fears in U.S.

Oil find off Cuba stokes fears in U.S.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2006/12/31/natcubaoil1231a.html

Experts say the exact size of Cuba's offshore oil deposits is still in question, but the potential is impressive. A U.S. Geological Survey study estimates that a curving belt of ocean floor north of Cuba may contain at least 4.5 billion barrels of oil and nearly 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In contrast, an area in U.S. waters about 200 miles west of Tampa just approved by Congress for drilling is believed to hold about 1.3 billion barrels of oil and 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Drilling under way

For impoverished Cuba, the oil prospects are dazzling, and Fidel Castro's government has wasted no time in pushing to develop the fields. The region has been divided into 59 exploration blocks, and Cuba has signed deals with foreign oil firms to begin drilling in earnest.

One well sunk by the Spanish oil company Repsol-YPF has already found a small amount of the oil.

"But it was enough that Norway's Norsk Hydro acquired a 30 percent stake," said Jorge Pinon, a former oil company executive who is now a research associate at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. "Norsk Hydro wouldn't go to Cuba for political purposes. They are one of the best deepwater drilling companies in the world, and if they are going in it is likely this will be viable."

Cuba has signed other oil deals with firms from Venezuela, Indian, China and Canada, a clear sign that a Cuban oil boom is brewing. But Pinon says it will be several years before the offshore Cuban operations crank into high gear because of soaring demand around the world for the limited number of deepwater rigs.

Wall Street eyes their oil resources with envy.

and that Osama bin Laden was sighted in Havana. Next we will hear from AIPAC that Fidel hates Jews, and that his government stages an annual "Running of the Jews." Tom Friedman will write that a correspondent named Borat has reported how Jewish girls are badly treated in Cuba.

Bush will appear on TV saying "the disarming of Cuba has begun."

after Cuba discovered their poor-quality, heavy, sour crude fields in 1971. The good stuff was only discovered in 2004 and confirmed by U.S. Geological Survey the same year.

Here's one from May 2006. This one talks about the bills in congress.
<clips>

China, Cuba reported in Gulf oil partnership

U.S. firms stand by, prohibited from bidding on contracts; lawmakers propose opening up U.S. coast for drilling.
May 9, 2006: 10:12 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Plans for foreign oil companies, some from India and China, to drill off the cost of Cuba are prompting calls from lawmakers to ease environmental restrictions that prohibit coastal drilling in most of the U.S., according to a report Tuesday.

At a time of rising soaring gasoline prices caused partly by a lack of supply, legislators are fuming that Cuba is opening up its continental shelf for oil and gas exploration while most of the U.S. continental shelf outside the Gulf of Mexico, which extends 200 miles from shore, has been off limits for drilling since the early 1980s, the New York Times reported.

Adding insult to injury, the Times said U.S. firms were invited to bid on the Cuban contracts, but were barred by the U.S. government due to the country's longstanding economic embargo of communist Cuba.

"Red China should not be left to drill for oil within spitting distance of our shores without competition from U.S. industries," Sen. Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho, told the Times.

Firms from Canada and Spain will also drill off the Cuban coast, the article said

Craig is introducing a bill to exempt U.S. oil firms from the embargo, much as food and drug firms are, according to the article.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/09/news/economy/oil_cuba/?cnn=yes

...a foreign nation, less that 100 miles off our southern coast, with whom we've always (by design) had poor relations, strikes big oil. Gee, I wonder if we might have to commence to spreadin' a little democracy down that way sometime in the near future. No tellin' what kinda WMD's Fidel's been stockpiling down there over the last decade or two. Someone better phone the NYT with the story, let's get Judith Miller on the case -- here's a good headline: "Cuba Believed to be Conducting Long Time Secret Nuclear Weapons Tests: Experts Say May Be Close to Massive Nuclear Bomb."

.. but were shot down by numerous experts (namely, UN inspectors Cuba allowed to do research in Cuba), as well as Jimmy Carter who went to Cuba to look at Cuba's bio medical centers - only to report that Cuba's bio research was intented solely for developing vaccines and other anti disease drugs that it exports to poor countries in Africa and S Americas (medical assistance which Cuba is famous for).

...harboring terrists --- yeah, that's it, Cuba has become a breeding ground/hideout for the world's most dangerous, Amerika hatin' terrists.

Here's a good headline for the NYT: "New Satellite Imagery Exposes Terrorist Training Camps on Cuban Soil: Military Experts Say Cuba Likely the New Staging Ground for Attacks on U.S."

Time to spread some democracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detainment_camp

These camps already exist. The United States runs them

...recall where Milo calls in a bombing raid on one of our own airfields.

One of the all time great films in my opinion.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065528/

...Only sane men may be excused from combat, but because war is insane, any man rational enough to want to avoid fighting must be sane, and therefore must fight...

the terrorist's pal. I wouldn't be surprised that El Mono pardons Luis Posada Carriles so he can join his terrorist pal Orlando Bosch Avila in Miami. Both documented terrorists, both harbored by the Bush family.

Our Great Decider will save us from these daiquiry-sipping nuclear terrorists!

Cuba was involved in 9-11.}(

but there is an irony here I find irrefutable. For years, we have snubbed the Cubans at every possible turn ... and now it happens they have found oil. I wonder what Castro can do for his people now that he has some cash coming in ...

**edited for typos**

The free elections part remains unlikely.

Still, we have had diplomatic and trade relationships with worse ... a fact they have long blamed some of their issues upon. Now they have a good cash stream. Let's see what they'll do.

you mean like those rigged elections that we have here? Or the ones we held all over LatAm that ensured that the US friendly dictators of choice for whatever country we overthrew got elected?

Here's a few examples:

1963--A far-right-wing coup in Guatemala, apparently U.S.-supported, forestalls elections in which "extreme leftist" Juan José Arévalo was favored to win.

1970--** Cables written by U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry after Allende's election, detailing conversations with President Eduardo Frei on how to block the president-elect from being inaugurated. The cables contain detailed descriptions and opinions on the various political forces in Chile, including the Chilean military, the Christian Democrat Party, and the U.S. business community.

1972--U.S. stands by as military suspends an election in El Salvador in which centrist José Napoleón Duarte was favored to win.

1973--U.S.-supported military coup kills Allende and brings Augusto Pinochet Ugarte to power. Pinochet imprisons well over a hundred thousand Chileans (torture and rape are the usual methods of interrogation), terminates civil liberties, abolishes unions, extends the work week to 48 hours, and reverses Allende's land reforms.

1973--Military takes power in Uruguay, supported by U.S. The subsequent repression reportedly features the world's highest percentage of the population imprisoned for political reasons.

1984--U.S. spends $10 million to orchestrate elections in El Salvador-- something of a farce, since left-wing parties are under heavy repression, and the military has already declared that it will not answer to the elected president.

http://www.zompist.com/latam.html

Yeah, free elections!! :rofl:

:rofl:

Get a clue. :crazy:

The excuses are now pretty much gone. Let's see what he can do ... or WILL do

Presuming he doesn't collapse into a heap of ash first, of course.
:evilgrin:

snubbing, you are exceptionally naive, which explains you post. Here's some information to get you started. It's from Business Week--kinda like Cuba 101 for those who know nothing about the island except that regurgitated propaganda they read in the US MSM.

Also, Google "Wayne Smith +Cuba". Having been head of the Cuba Interests Section in Havana, Smith is probably the most respected Cuba expert in the country and has written much about the island. Here's a link with plenty of his articles: http://ciponline.org/cuba/index.htm

<clips>


Cuba Without Castro: A Look Ahead

...A Two-Tier Society

Will Cuba's economy collapse? There's no reason for it to collapse. Cuba's economy is currently growing at an 8% clip, thanks in part to high world prices for its nickel, which accounts for 25% of the country's exports. (The price of nickel, used in stainless steel, has doubled this year, reaching a record price of $34,950 a ton on Dec. 15.) More than two million tourists, mostly from Canada and Europe, visit the island annually, spending some $2 billion. And the country has discovered significant offshore oil deposits that already provide nearly 40% of the oil that Cuba consumes. Venezuela's leftist president Hugo Chávez sends 100,000 barrels a day of crude oil and refined petroleum products to Cuba at sweetheart prices.

But aren't there many shortages on the island? Yes. The average Cuban, whether a doctor or a seamstress, earns just $15 to $20 a month and must use a government-issue ration book for basic necessities such as cooking oil, meat, and soap. Only Cubans with immediate family members living overseas are allowed to receive up to $1,200 annually in remittances, which they can use to buy other items in special government shops that accept only hard currency.

...Striking (Lots Of) Oil

In spite of the embargo, some U.S. companies are doing business with Cuba, right? Yes. Since 2000, the U.S. government has eased the embargo slightly, allowing U.S. companies to export around $1.2 billion in food items, chiefly wheat, soybeans, rice, corn, oilseeds, meat and poultry, and dairy products, as well as some medicine to the island. In 2005 alone those exports totaled $361.5 million. Companies must get a special license from the U.S. government and Cuba generally must pay for all purchases in cash. U.S. government studies have indicated that if the embargo is lifted, U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba could exceed $1 billion annually within five years, making Cuba the second most important market for foodstuffs in the hemisphere, after Mexico.

Cuba discovered oil off its northern coast in 2002. How promising is that? Very. Studies show that Cuba may have about one billion barrels of reserves in coastal areas, and there may be from four billion to six billion barrels of unproven oil reserves in deep waters in Cuba's part of the Gulf of Mexico, according to Jorge Piñon, a retired Amoco and BP executive now at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies.

Cuba currently produces 68,000 barrels of oil per day. U.S. oil companies are interested in participating in Cuba's promising oil sector, but for now they must watch from the sidelines while companies such as Canada's Sherritt and Spain's Repsol, as well as state companies from Norway, China, and India, get most of the business.

When Fidel dies, is there any chance that thousands of Cubans will try to flee to the U.S.? Few analysts expect widespread unrest. When Castro announced that he was stepping down temporarily July 31, nothing happened. The U.S. government, however, has contingency plans in place should thousands of Cubans make an effort to flee the island to reach Florida or if Cuban American exiles in Miami organize a flotilla of boats to pluck remaining relatives off the island, which lies just 90 miles south of Miami.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2006/db20061226_388174.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business

And I hope that the people with new found wealth will trade outside of the USA. Fidel just has to worry about keeping the neocons out of the picture.

help keep *ss and co. out. It also explains why there has been such a push for central and south American unity of late. Standing together against their common enemy.

Cuba's got WMD's, they are going to fly drones with bioweapons on board to wipe out retirement communities is Key West. Bomb them! Kill them! Kill them all! Hang Fidel!

Just get ready for it.

Corrected.

Cuban}(

<clips>

“One who shelters a terrorist, is a terrorist” – President George W. Bush

* The Bush Administration is harboring perhaps the Western Hemisphere’s most insidious terrorist, whose application for U.S. citizenship is presently on the docket and if granted, would represent an effrontery to this nation’s bona fides, as well as the legitimacy of its worldwide anti-terrorist crusade and what remains of its good name abroad
* The White House feverishly searches for a country willing to receive Posada in order to spare it from having to cross swords with the Miami leadership by either extraditing him to Cuba or Venezuela, or trying him here
* The Posada case as well as the Cuban Five represents perhaps a defining moment in which the Bush administration’s ideological passions have snuffed out a proper application of justice – an unacceptable sense of ethical values and public rectitude
* Meanwhile, the fate of the Cuban Five, whose crimes were negligible compared to Posada’s homicides, does not seem to either confuse or disturb Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Thus, the White House will likely have a problem regarding who it denominates as a “terrorist” and who it fetes as a patriot

The upcoming immigration hearing for Luis Posada Carriles, the 78 year-old felon who is a self-confessed co-conspirator responsible for the detonation of a bomb which killed 73 passengers and crew members aboard a Cuban passenger airliner as it flew over Barbadian waters on October 6, 1976, represents a huge political burden for the White House and its deteriorating relations with Latin America. The disposition of the case will now also test the authenticity of the U.S.’s War on Terror, since Posada is responsible for some of the worst pre-9/11 crimes perpetrated in the Western Hemisphere. However, he has never been conclusively tried for being one of the region’s most notorious psychopaths, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) lawyers as well as his detractors continue to cavil over whether he should be accorded the gallows or be granted U.S. citizenship.

Posada originally had admitted to a New York Times reporter of masterminding the 1976 bombing of Cuban Flight 455, in which 73 passengers lost their lives, including a nine-year-old girl, Cuba’s award-winning national fencing team, a young mother-to-be, as well as Guyanese and North Korean travelers. However, in deference to the ultra rightist faction of Miami’s Cuban exile community, Washington has repeatedly offered its protection to this world class criminal from prosecution by U.S. authorities or in any other germane jurisdiction. In doing so, the Bush administration almost has gone out of its way to debase the process of shaping a corpus of applicable international standards against terrorism by protecting those whom others might describe as “terrorists,” who are considered to be in good standing by some U.S. authorities. But, as the Washington-based lawyer, Jose Pertierra – who has been retained by Venezuelan authorities to represent their country’s interests in this case – explains “the fight against terrorism cannot be fought à la carte.”

http://www.coha.org/2006/12/27/posada-carriles-washington-and-miami%e2%80%99s-preferred-terrorist/

A clip from "638 Ways To Kill Castro", where an associate of anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada practically admits that Posada was behind the hotel bombings in Havana in 1997, saying that he thinks it is an acceptable method to make it clear that Cuba "is not a healthy place for tourists".
Needles to say that the only reason why Cuba would not be a healthy place for tourists is because it is made unhealthy for tourists by anti-Castro terrorists certain individuals who want Cuba to be an unhealthy place for tourists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pJyHRQVZUY

Here's a link to the NYTs interview where Posada admitted the bombings. Comprised of several articles, it was a bombshell when it hit the streets. CANF and RayGun/Bush/Clinton pal Mas Canosa bankrolled the bombings.


<clips>
MIAMI -- A Cuban exile who has waged a campaign of bombings and assassination attempts aimed at toppling Fidel Castro says that his efforts were supported financially for more than a decade by the Cuban-American leaders of one of America's most influential lobbying groups.

The exile, Luis Posada Carriles, said he organized a wave of bombings in Cuba last year at hotels, restaurants and discothèques, killing an Italian tourist and alarming the Cuban Government. Posada was schooled in demolition and guerrilla warfare by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960's.

In a series of tape-recorded interviews at a walled Caribbean compound, Posada said the hotel bombings and other operations had been supported by leaders of the Cuban-American National Foundation. Its founder and head, Jorge Mas Canosa, who died last year, was embraced at the White House by Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.

A powerful force in both Florida and national elections, and a prodigious campaign donor, Mas played a decisive role in persuading Clinton to change his mind and follow a course of sanctions and isolation against Castro's Cuba.

Although the tax-exempt foundation has declared that it seeks to bring down Cuba's Communist Government solely through peaceful means, Posada said leaders of the foundation discreetly financed his operations. Mas personally supervised the flow of money and logistical support, he said.

"Jorge controlled everything," Posada said. "Whenever I needed money, he said to give me $5,000, give me $10,000, give me $15,000, and they sent it to me."

Over the years, Posada estimated, Mas sent him more than $200,000. "He never said, 'This is from the foundation,' " Posada recalled. Rather, he said with a chuckle, the money arrived with the message, "This is for the church."

Foundation leaders did not respond to repeated telephone calls and letters requesting an interview to discuss their relationship with Posada. But in a brief statement faxed to The New York Times, the group denied a role in his operations, saying "any allegation, implication, or suggestion that members of the Cuban American National Foundation have financed any alleged 'acts of violence' against the Castro regime are totally and patently false."

http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/071298cuba-plot.html


Bombs begun to explode at Havana's finer hotels, an oper-ation Mr. Posada says he directed. April 1997.


The Cuban-American National Foundation provided this undated photographs of Jorge Mas Canosa, its founder and president until his death last year, with President Bush.


The Cuban-American National Foundation provided this undated photographs of Jorge Mas Canosa, its founder and president until his death last year, with President Clinton.

<clips>

On Monday, in an El Paso, Texas immigration court, Judge William Abbott rejected a request by Posada's lawyer that he be released on bond, ruling that Posada must remain in detention until his case is resolved. In his ruling, Abbott cited allegations that Posada is a terror suspect and said he was concerned Posada would flee. Abbott listed a series of terror allegations against Posada over several decades and said even Posada's participation in operations against Cuba in the early 1960s could be considered terror under today's standards. The Miami Herald reported that the judge's statement seemed to catch by surprise Posada's lawyer, Matthew Archambeault, who said he interpreted it to mean the judge would include the Bay of Pigs invasion -- which was organized by the U.S. government . In response, Judge Abbott said, "It doesn't necessarily matter who helped it...The question is whether that kind of activity today would be defined as aiding terrorism or participating in acts of terrorism.""

According to The Herald, Posada played a role in the Bay of Pigs operation but was not part of the invasion force itself. It was after that that Posada allegedly joined the CIA, moving to Venezuela in the late 1960s. In Caracas, Posada served as a senior Venezuelan security officer and later operated a private security agency.

He was arrested and charged in connection with the blowing up of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73 people. Acquitted by a military court, Posada escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 before a civilian court could reach a verdict. Posada was detained in Miami-Dade on May 17 and accused of entering the country illegally. The Venezuelan government has demanded his extradition since then, but has been denied.

* Jose Pertierra, a Washington DC-based immigration lawyer. He has been retained by the Venezuelan government to represent it in the Luis Posada C `arriles case here in the United States. He joins us on the line from Caracas, Venezuela.

* Art Heitzer, Chair of the National Lawyers Guild's Cuba Subcommittee and works with the Center for Constitutional Rights.

* Robert Parry, veteran investigative journalist and author of the new book "Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq." For years he worked as an investigative reporter for both the Associated Press and Newsweek magazine. His reporting led to the exposure of what is now known as the "Iran-Contra" scandal.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/27/1422236

They've tried it probably 3 times since _Bush claimed to be elected. They claim that the Cuban medical researchers who are doing world-class work in a LOT of fields producing breakthrough medicine are actually creating dual-use products which can be used as weapons.

The last time they tried this was the NIGHT BEFORE JIMMY CARTER WAS SCHEDULED TO FLY TO HAVANA. John Bolton went to the Heritage Society to give a speech and told them all this whopper, and it hit the papers the same day Jimmy Carter went to Havana to begin his visit there.

Jimmy Carter told Fidel Castro he had heard that charge here before, and had asked _Bush's people who had to talk with him prior to his trip if there was anything to the charge, and he was told they didn't have any information.

Fidel Castro told Jimmy Carter, as they went through the laboratories, that he was welcome to return to Cuba any time he wanted and bring any number of scientists with him to examine the work they are doing.

I imagine you are right that we're going to hear it all over again!



Carter, Castro attending Pierre Trudeau's funeral in Canada, attending a ball game in Cuba

an escape of prisoners at our detention camp and say we need to invade to round them up.

:sarcasm: I guess it's time to bring democracy to Cuba and liberate its people.

...Striking (Lots Of) Oil

In spite of the embargo, some U.S. companies are doing business with Cuba, right? Yes. Since 2000, the U.S. government has eased the embargo slightly, allowing U.S. companies to export around $1.2 billion in food items, chiefly wheat, soybeans, rice, corn, oilseeds, meat and poultry, and dairy products, as well as some medicine to the island. In 2005 alone those exports totaled $361.5 million. Companies must get a special license from the U.S. government and Cuba generally must pay for all purchases in cash. U.S. government studies have indicated that if the embargo is lifted, U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba could exceed $1 billion annually within five years, making Cuba the second most important market for foodstuffs in the hemisphere, after Mexico.

Cuba discovered oil off its northern coast in 2002. How promising is that? Very. Studies show that Cuba may have about one billion barrels of reserves in coastal areas, and there may be from four billion to six billion barrels of unproven oil reserves in deep waters in Cuba's part of the Gulf of Mexico, according to Jorge Piñon, a retired Amoco and BP executive now at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies.

Cuba currently produces 68,000 barrels of oil per day. U.S. oil companies are interested in participating in Cuba's promising oil sector, but for now they must watch from the sidelines while companies such as Canada's Sherritt and Spain's Repsol, as well as state companies from Norway, China, and India, get most of the business.

When Fidel dies, is there any chance that thousands of Cubans will try to flee to the U.S.? Few analysts expect widespread unrest. When Castro announced that he was stepping down temporarily July 31, nothing happened. The U.S. government, however, has contingency plans in place should thousands of Cubans make an effort to flee the island to reach Florida or if Cuban American exiles in Miami organize a flotilla of boats to pluck remaining relatives off the island, which lies just 90 miles south of Miami.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2006/db20061226_388174_page_2.htm


Firms from China and India will be drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba, but U.S. companies are prohibited from bidding on the contracts, according to a recent report.

these estimates and they are only estimates at best, would represent a little over a years' supply of oil for the US and less than 1/2 a years supply of gas.. Not much at all. It is alot for Cuba though.. Probably enough to keep them going for a long time..

Well at least not inclusive just as oil is not oil. You see when we are looking at a prospect we are talking about exploratory drilling's, testing samples, speculations, initial implementations and so on. You know, copious amounts of R&D$$$ which will be publicly funded.

The well could be a dud. But you, taxpayer, are going to pay for all the externalities. And we, the investor class, will reap the benefit (your labor-blood) and sell out when it's obvious it is a dud.

The liquid amount is inconsequential.