Oil Diplomacy Blog: Global Perspectives on Foreign Oil and Gas Issues

If Cuba can drill off Florida, why can't we?

Stock market analyst Eric Fox, stating his views in a commentary for www.investopedia.com, has drawn attention to an interesting anomaly facing the US oil and gas industry.

Fox draws attention to an agreement signed last week between Cuba and a Russian oil company to explore waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fox says the agreement raises a question that seems almost like a joke: if Cuba can explore for oil and gas off the coast of Florida, how come the United States can't?

“The problem that I have is not with Cuba exploring, as they are within their legal rights, or even that there are no American companies involved due to U.S. law,” says Fox.

“The issue is that the exploration of the North Cuba Basin will come within 45 miles of the Florida coast, which is closer than American companies can drill in US waters,” he says.

Fox says that “Cuba, a country with which we have no diplomatic or commercial relations, can drill and explore for oil and gas closer to our coast than our own domestic industry can.”

According to Fox, “this underscores the disarray of U.S. Energy Policy, and will prolong our dependence on foreign sources of oil even longer.”

What’s your view? Do you think that Fox is right about the “disarray” of US energy policy? Does the situation mean that the US really will be dependent on foreign sources of oil? More to the point, is such concern a little xenophobic?

Fox can be found at http://www.investopedia.com/?viewed=1

Labels:

posted by: noreply@blogger.com

090805 :If Cuba can drill off Florida, why can't we?

Post Comment

3 Comments:

mcfakerson95 said...

So what is the point? You want to be able to drill in Cuban waters off Florida too? Two wrongs don't make a right and it's not like giving American companies the right to drill off Florida is going to somehow cancel out the effects of Cuban drilling. Your argument seems to be, "if anyone's going to trash Florida it should be us!" We can't control what they do in the Cuban basin but we can certainly control what we do off the rest of the pennisula. Even a child can reason that increasing drilling simply increases the risk. Your solution to the drilling problem is more drilling! But what do you expect from the "Oil and Gas Journal" -propaganda put forward by an industry rag.
Thu Aug 06, 11:29:03 PM CDT

Eric Watkins said...

Industry rag? Hmmm... I wouldn't agree with that, would I? Well, we're not putting forth a view in this particular blog about Cuban drilling or trying to make a point. We are putting forth ideas for discussion, comment, etc, and appreciate it when people respond to the matter at hand.
Tue Aug 11, 02:52:14 PM CDT

David Davis said...

I just want to know what that guy drives and how he heats and cools his house, I am sure not a bike, wood or a window.
Thu Aug 13, 01:40:42 PM CDT

Post Comment

OGJ Oil Diplomacy Blog

by Eric Watkins

Eric Watkins joined Oil & Gas Journal in 2001 as Middle East Correspondent and now serves as its Oil Diplomacy Editor, drawing out the industry’s political implications. His column Watching the World appears weekly in Oil & Gas Journal, while his news articles appear daily on Oil & Gas Journal Online. Eric’s work is based on his experience as a correspondent in the Middle East, Europe, and Central Asia. He lived in Saudi Arabia, 1981-88; Yemen, 1989-94; the UK, 1988-89 and 1994-2000; and Cyprus, 2000-04. Additional assignments have taken him to Africa, the Arabian Gulf, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

If Cuba can drill off Florida, why can't we?

3 Comments:

Previous Posts

Archives