Gulf of Mexico oil, Cuba's billion-dollar bet

[Judi Lynn]

Gulf of Mexico oil, Cuba's billion-dollar bet
Reuters, 12.02.03, 12:38 PM ET

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - When one of the world's largest deep-sea drilling rigs parks off Cuba next March, the island's Communist government will be betting on an oil bonanza to shore up its cash-strapped revolution.

Oil experts say it's a long shot and Cuba would have to discover a major deposit of light crude to make it commercially viable to tap a deep water field in the Gulf of Mexico at a cost of more than $1 billion. (snip)

(snip) While the risk is being born by Repsol, which contracted six blocks for exploration off Cuba's north-west coast, the stakes are high for President Fidel Castro's government.

An oil find would allow Cuba to pull up an economy crippled by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of billions of dollars in subsidies by way of shipments of cheap oil.

Cuba now depends on Venezuela for oil imports with generous financing terms, but opponents of Venezuelan populist president Hugo Chavez have threatened to cancel the deal outright if they manage to oust him in a recall referendum. (snip/...)

http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2003/12/02/rtr1166351.html

[Caution]

1. and if they find oil

I guess it will be time for bush to protect us from the terra ists in kooba and go down there and tighten the noose around castro.

[TexasMexican]

3. Pretty sad...

sort of makes you hope that they dont find any oil.

[Say_What]

6. What do you think Uncle Sam has spent the last 40+ years trying to do?

Why do you think Cuba and her leader are heros in the eyes of the Third World? Castro has held off 10--count 'em 10--US presidents. Uncle sam has spent unlimited funds trying to take out Fidel Castro and has enacted law after draconian law trying to strangle the Cuban economy in hopes that the Cuban people would overthrow their government--and guess what? Cuba has survived--much to the chagrin of her ugly northern neighbor. When the Third World looks for a model it's not the USSA they look to, it's Cuba--thus there are lots of changes going on in Latin America, which Uncle Sam isn't too happy about (Boliva, Venezuela, Brazil are a few examples).

Viva Cuba!!

[Nlighten1]

2. This will be the end of Fidel

if oil is found you know the hounds of war will be unleashed.

[Mika]

7. If I got $1 for every "This will be the end of Fidel" I'd be rich.

The hounds of war have been unleashed on Cuba for 40+ years.

[NashVegas]

9. I Think Otherwise - Think of the Choice

Choice #1 - invade and piss off every non-US owned oil company in the world that had a chance to do business, give them legitimate excuses to get a world-wide propaganda campaign and/or oil trade war against us.

Choice #2 - make our oil companies happy at the risk of pissing off the Florida mob

I think we're about to see just how expendable that mob really is, one way or the other. If I were Bush (either George or Jebbie) I'd be FAR less worried about the exiles.

[Say_What]

4. Everyone's getting interested in little Cuba--first the ag and farm folks,

then the travel, now the oil, who's next?

From the article: Costly or not, the oil industry is interested, and a major American oil services company recently advocated lifting U.S. trade sanctions against Libya, Iran and Cuba.

The president of Halliburton Co. (nyse: HAL - news - people)'s energy services unit, John Gibson, said two weeks ago in an address to employees the future of oil exploration lay in developing countries, and in those three competitors had a jump start over U.S companies.

[Say_What]

5. Cuba and ecotourism

Posted to a Cuba board that I read. Not about oil per se, but interesting because it gives some insight into how the Cubans are restoring their island after it was raped by the colonialist who ruled it over the centuries. Great photo at the website.

<clips>
A LETTER TO A FRIEND --ABOUT LAS TERRRAZAS

Many of you have heard me talk about Las Terrazas, have written things I wrote about it, or gone there with me. (For those who have missed this, see copy of old letter below, along with a photo of the village and one of me enjoying the waterfall). Now, according to my friend Maria Carla, things are getting even better, if that's possible. Because Las Terrazas is in the middle of a biosphere reserve, they have been VERY careful about any expansion, to make sure it is consistent with the original goals of preserving and restoring forests and nature areas. So news of any kind of expansion is pretty special.

<...> they doubled the space on el río San Juan, to the left of the bridge there is now a big cascade with a natural 1.5 meter-deep pool and cafeteria; Tito, remember him from el Jardín Botaníco's first vegetarian restaurant?, has opened a similar one right next to el taller de sirografía , AND the architect is enlarging the hotel, but not in the traditional way: he is slowly building "an extra special room" in four of the local residents' apartments in Las Terrazas (the first one to be chosen was--of course--Margarito, the first mayor ): I visited this first room that has , among other things, a mango tree Margarito planted when he moved there, that comes out right next to the shower, crosses half the room, goes out the roof and is again visible from the window looking toward the hills; the door to the bathroom was done by Duporté in stained glass, and one of the decorative elements has been painted in a 6-inch strip running all around the room at hip length more or less. There is a new taller where they make bamboo furniture now used in these rooms and of course giving young people a place to work....

Anyway, those who have been to Las Terrazas may want to visit it again. Those who have never been there should include it in their next trip. It is just over the Habana-Pinar del Rio border, before you get to Soroa...

One of the best places I’ve been for environmentally-conscious tourism is the community of Las Terrazas, in Pinar del Rio Province , Cuba . The more I learn about it, the better it gets. It is far and away the best and most developed ecotourism project that Cuba has. It also has a number of key aspects that could well be unique in the world of ecotourism. The community came together to develop an ecological project 27 years ago --2 years before the first Earth Day, to put it in historic perspective. Long before anyone was talking about “ecotourism”. So there’s no doubt that ecology is the first priority of this particular ecotourism.

I should add a little about Las Terrazas community itself, because it represents the essence of what the Cuban Revolution was all about in 1959, and what it still is to many people, especially in the rural areas. In the 1960s a main objective of Fidel Castro and other revolutionary leaders was to see to it that the benefits of the revolution reached the most remote corners of the country, where the quality of life had changed little for centuries, and people were just eking out a bare living—often unaware of what was going on in the world outside.

http://www.walterlippmann.com/klw-lt.html

[Judi Lynn]

8. New business agreement between Cuba and South Africa

3 December 2003

SA, Cuba sign ICT co-operation deal

BY RODNEY WEIDEMANN, ITWEB JOURNALIST

- SA has signed a co-operation agreement with Cuba that will see the countries exchange technical skills and human resources development in the ICT arena.

The agreement was signed yesterday by SA's minister of communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, and her counterpart, Martha Lomas Morales, Cuba's minister of foreign investment and co-operation.

The exchange of technical skills and human resources development will focus on the areas of capacity building for small, micro and medium enterprises, the sharing of experience in satellite and other communication networks, and the management of limited resources, such as radio frequency spectrum management.

The agreement is also aimed at promoting cooperation between local and Cuban enterprises in the ICT field, with a particular focus on issues such as roaming agreements, software development and commercialisation, and the design, manufacturing, installation and maintenance of ICT systems.

Other sectors that will see the promotion and co-ordination of the use of ICT as an enabler will include the fields of tele-education, tele-health and e-commerce. The nations will also co-operate in terms of postal services and technologies. (snip/...)

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/computing/2003/0312031011.asp?A=ITG&S=IT%20in%20Government&T=Section&O=FPSH