Why arent any US companies interested in theses contracts? Their brother,neigbor and friend Cuba has large deposits of oil, but european and asian companies runs away with the contracts.
Wouldnt this be a great way to secure more oil, it is so close to that its a lot cheaper than importing from the middle east? The cubans will sell their oil anyway, Dont they believe in free trade and free market?
Why not trade oil with the friendly Cubans that have large deposits of it?
Cuba may be 90 miles from the US but is neither a brother or a friend, at least until the Castro brothers are gone.
Some US oil companies are trying to get friendly.
Russian oil rigs just 45 miles from Florida? - CSMonitor.com
This prospect has prompted Key West mayor Morgan McPherson to volunteer to go to Havana in the first US-Cuban exchange on the environment.
"I think it's important to create a dialogue," he says.
So far, Mr. McPherson says he has called the State Department who referred him to the Commerce Department who referred him back to the State Department.
"I got the Heisman," he says, referring to the statue of a stiff-armed football player.
However, he says he has heard from the Cubans who think it's a good idea. "Their economy is like our economy – centered around tourism – so they have as much at risk," he says.
But some environmental groups think the risk is too great. "It's hard for me to imagine that drilling that close to Florida's coast won't eventually mean oil spills washing up on Florida's shores," says Cat Lazaroff, a spokeswoman for Defenders of Wildlife in Washington.
Florida's US Senator Bill Nelson (D) and Gov. Charlie Crist (R) had no comment.
But the oil industry says it can do the job.
"We believe with the industry record the last 40 years, we can do it safely," says Dan Naatz, vice president for federal resources at the Independent Petroleum Association of America in Washington.
In 2004, the US Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that the mean amount of potential resources in the North Cuban basin was 4.5 billion barrels of oil and 9 to 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. By way of comparison Prudhoe Bay, the largest US discovery, on the north slope of Alaska originally had about 25 billion barrels of oil.
