Cuba to drill five new oil wells by 2013

Cuba vows.... safety first....


http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...ocId=CNG.692381365d745fc505df40c97673c9ec.a31

Cuba to drill five new oil wells by 2013
By Carlos Batista (AFP) – Apr 5, 2011

HAVANA — Cuba on Tuesday announced plans to drill five deepwater oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico beginning this summer, expressing confidence that its efforts will be rewarded with major new energy finds.

"We're about to move to the drilling phase," said Manuel Marrero, an official with the government authority tasked with overseeing Cuba's oil sector.

"We're all really hopeful that we will be able to discover large reserves of oil and gas," said Marrero, who added that the ventures would be undertaken with the help of unspecified foreign companies.

He said the deepwater wells were to be drilled between 2011 and 2013, and would be in waters ranging in depth between 400 meters (a quarter mile) and 1,500 meters (1.6 miles). He did not specify which countries would be among the foreign partners working with Havana on the project.

Some studies estimate Cuba has probable reserves of between five and nine billion barrels of oil in its economic zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Cuban authorities have said their crude reserves are as high as 20 billion barrels.

In 2010, Cuba produced 21 million barrels of oil, about the same as it had extracted the previous year, representing a little less than half of its annual energy needs.

Cuba depends on Venezuela for the rest of its oil imports of about 100,000 barrels per day. Any cut to Venezuelan supplies could spell political and economic disaster for Havana.

The only one-party communist regime in the Americas, Cuba has long been plagued by energy dependence that amounts to its economic Achilles' heel.

Havana used to depend on the eastern bloc for cut-rate oil, and plunged into economic chaos and blackouts when it was cut off after 1989.

Locking in energy independence, aside from potentially turning Cuba from a cash-strapped developing nation into a flush oil exporter, could help project its current regime years into the future.

On Monday, Rafael Tenrreyro, the head of state oil form Cupet's exploration branch, said Cuba was anxiously awaiting a platform made in China for one of its offshore efforts.

"At some point this summer it should be getting here," Tenrreyro told reporters, referring to the next few months' time.

Despite the BP oil spill tragedy in the gulf, Tenrreyro insisted "safety is more than guaranteed. Cuban institutions have made sure that is the case."

Cuba's economic zone in the Gulf, just a stone's throw from the US state of Florida, is divided into 59 blocs.

Of those 20 are ventures with Repsol (Spain), Hydro (Norway), OVL (India), PDVSA (Venezuela), Petrovietnam and Petronas (Malaysia). Petrobras (Brazil) recently pulled out and Sonangol (Angola) recently signed on.

 

That sounds so unsafe. We should bomb them.

 

LOLOL.. there is quite a lot in the news today about Cuban oil and safety.

 

QUOTE from article; MARGOT
Locking in energy independence, aside from potentially turning Cuba from a cash-strapped developing nation into a flush oil exporter


I thought it wouldn't be productive for the U.S. to drill our own oil, but it is for Cuba???? How does that work?

 

Cuba's lift costs are not as high as ours.

These are long term projects.. Note the oil companies that will be operating in Cuban waters.

If they are successful.. and I expect that they will be, it won't neccessarily reduce the PPB..

 

Good point, FLY, but so long as liberals keep bowing down to the precious elk and spotted owl rights...the chance of us drilling in ANWAR and other American oil sites will continue to be limited. Have we gotten any liberal insight into keeping and extending our nuclear facilities and or oil refineries as well. No, I didn't think so.

 

Note the companies working in Cuban oil..

Of those 20 are ventures with Repsol (Spain), Hydro (Norway), OVL (India), PDVSA (Venezuela), Petrovietnam and Petronas (Malaysia). Petrobras (Brazil) recently pulled out and Sonangol (Angola) recently signed on.

 

We are not capable of long term projects? Our companies aren't capable of making a profit by drilling domestically at 4+ dollar a gallon gasoline? I guess we just don't have the know how of the oil business that Cuba does...

 

Let's not forget the sex lives of the Caribou!

 

Lift costs.

Look at the companies involved.. they are lean and mean.

 

...And we are what, fat and lazy? You don't believe our oil companies can compete with them?

 

As we speak US oil companies are unhappy with new safety regs and claim it will add $5 a barrel to their lift costs.

OPEC producers lift costs run $3 to 5.50 a barrel total.

 

New safety Regulations? I suppose Cuba has to adhere to those NEW SAFETY REGULATIONS too? No, then your saying the Obama administration is holding us back?

 

Cuba has safety regs..

US safety regs were notoriously poor and convoluted.

 

How do there's compare to ours? What's your suggestion as to how our poor companies can possibly compete with these lean and mean foreign companies and not go out of business?

 

We can compete as long as the PPB stays high.


http://www.politicalforum.com/curre...l-votes-force-more-oil-leases-u-s-waters.html

Republicans think they can FORCE more oil leases and that US oil companies will automatically drill.

 

What would prevent U.S. companies, aside from gov regs, from drilling wells and capping them to be used when prices are high both offsetting those prices a little and turning a profit at the same time?

 

Some will.. depends on market demand, the quality and quantity of the oil and ROI.

 

Fyi...................

 

Fyi...................

 

“Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” - Mr. Steven Chu (Obama's Energy Secretary)

Pretty much says it all doesn't it.

 

Cuba had a thriving oil business with Esso Cuba and a refinery.. before Castro.

 

Makes sense.

Cuba will not be inundated with hyper-regulation, environmental extremists, or political gamesmanship.

The only problem is that if they ever have a spill........Florida and the Gulf states will still get the oil on their beaches...... LOL

So the Obama merely regulated the industry 80 miles to the South.

Can't make this stuff up.

 

Theyre not drilling for Cuba, theyre drilling for CHINA...

Thanks for nothing... Obama

 

As usual you didn't read the article.....

20 are ventures with Repsol (Spain), Hydro (Norway), OVL (India), PDVSA (Venezuela), Petrovietnam and Petronas (Malaysia). Petrobras (Brazil) recently pulled out and Sonangol (Angola) recently signed on.