Canadian Oil Exploration in Cuba

[Said1]

Oil Find Hints at a Less Dependent Cuba
By SIMON ROMERO

Published: January 11, 2005

HOUSTON, Jan. 10 - On Dec. 25, President Fidel Castro said he had some information to lift the spirits of Cuba's 11 million people: two Canadian energy companies, Pebercan and Sherritt International, had discovered oil in the Gulf of Mexico in an area under Cuba's control.

Mr. Castro, in an announcement that raised eyebrows in the executive suites of energy companies here, disclosed that the Canadian companies had discovered estimated reserves of 100 million barrels. That was the good news. It was also the bad news.

The deposits, which are expected to produce oil as early as next year, may provide Cuba's government with some relief as it presses forward with efforts to use hard currency for purposes other than petroleum purchases from abroad. Shortly after Mr. Castro announced the discovery, the central bank said it was tightening measures intended to centralize the control of dollars circulating in the Cuban economy.

"Cuba simply needs the money," said John S. Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council in New York, which tracks trade activity in Cuba.

Still, the discovery, while considered something of a lifeline for a country still recovering from the loss of Soviet-era subsidized oil imports more than a decade ago, is no panacea. The prospective output by the Canadian companies would cover only about three to four years of oil production by Cuba, which now imports much of its oil from Venezuela on favorable terms.

Yet the deposits showed how tantalizingly close Cuba has come to altering the dynamics of oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, an area that also provides one of the largest sources of oil for the United States. The economic outlook for Cuba is not as dire as it was a decade ago, with growth reaching 5 percent in 2004, according to government estimates; at least a small part of that economic growth was spurred by investments by international energy companies searching for oil.

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[dilloduck]

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Castro is pretty old-----can't you Canucks just sorta swipe it out from under his nose?

 

[Said1]

Castro is pretty old-----can't you Canucks just sorta swipe it out from under his nose?

That wouldn't be very nice now would it?

 

[dilloduck]

That wouldn't be very nice now would it?

ok let the french do it--but don't gripe !!!!

 

[no1tovote4]

Castro is pretty old-----can't you Canucks just sorta swipe it out from under his nose?

Which begs the question, who is taking over that country when that fossil is finally buried?

There is going to be a power vacuum from Hell!

 

[dilloduck]

Which begs the question, who is taking over that country when that fossil is finally buried?

There is going to be a power vacuum from Hell!

I'm betting on Juan or Pedro

 

[Said1]

Which begs the question, who is taking over that country when that fossil is finally buried?

There is going to be a power vacuum from Hell!

I can vaguely remember reading somewhere that a relative is being molded to take over for Castro when he dies. Apparently this guy is much more liberal than Castro, just what the people want.

 

[no1tovote4]

I can vaguely remember reading somewhere that a relative is being molded to take over for Castro when he dies. Apparently this guy is much more liberal than Castro, just what the people want.

I just don't think the people will accept him. It would be necessary to have him begin his public life now. A suprise Castro isn't Fidel. I think there will be coups and uprisings as soon as this iron willed dictator has lost his hold on the working tools of life.

 

[Mr. H.]

NEWS Cuba Insists It Has Oil US Companies Still Uninterested Rigzone

Cuba hopes the discovery of oil offshore will free it from dependence on other countries, such as socialist ally Venezuela currently and the Soviet Union previously.

 

[Said1]

Still uninterested? WTFs it gonna take, man!