China drilling 40 miles off Key West

Chinese oil companies have formed a joint venture with

Aidan Karley...

[SNIP]

Cuba to develop petroleum basins in the region between
Florida and Cuba. This area is the southern extension
of the east Gulf of Mexico. Its long been considered an
eastward extension of the Gulf's petroleum region,
but prohibted from development by the US.

Aidan Karley...

Someone on groups.
And so what concern is it for anyone if a company (that's an
economic unit) is engaging in a joint venture (that's a different
module of economics) with other people in a part of the world? Sorry,
isn't that what economics is all about?

Clark...

Well Aidan there are several concerns with Cubans going forward with
development. Development of one of the nearby USA regions has been prohibited

Aidan Karley...

Principle of which is "will I get the work?" I was quite annoyed when
Simon got the last job there, since my very small amount of Spanish was still
considerably better than he had. Stillm, I got the Tanzania job, and I'm lined
up for both North Korea and Malaysia, so I'm not too sore.

Clark...

Sounds like lots of frequent flyer miles. Glad I'm not doing much of that
anymore. My position is that the human body was never meant to set in an
aluminum can traveling at 500 mph for hours on end.

by law for quite some time now. Folks were apparently worried about possible
environmental and economic impacts. Will the Cubans and their JV partners
respect USA concerns and mitigate the impacts? Now look at track records of
US and non-US ops in the Gulf and Carribbean. We can and do achieve zero
discharge as required by law and expectation in US waters. Will Cuba? Other
nations in the region do not achieve those standards on a regular basis.

Aidan Karley...

Perfectly reasonable concerns. But it doesn't make the idea of petroleum
development in the area inherently wrong, which is the tone I got from the
original poster. Hell, a few years ago I was working on a Dutch project to
develop a reserve under a "*NO* development of *ANY* sort National Park".
[Background - mobile phone beeping to remind me to go and attend medical centre
for ECG as part of Dutch offshore medical. Wonder if I'll be back onto phase 2
of this project. Got to go RSN.] Solution : drill from onshore pads outside the
National Park using ERD techniques and full site-sealing. Adds 20-30% to the
development cost, but perfectly do-able.

Final point: US companies are precluded by law from working with Cuba. Sure

Aidan Karley...

Tough. We're not.

its in the economic arena but it is overshadowed by an antiquated (and
failed) political concept.

Oh, sorry, is it wrong to apply the same rules of economics to
America as apply in the rest of the world?

Clark...

No need to be snarky Aidan. Please understand the US-Cuban history along with
the refusal of the US to accept that the embargo has failed miserably.

Cochon Capitaliste...

Cuba is a petroleum producer

Clark...

It appears you snipped my comment on the failed economic embargo that we've
been engaged in for about 30 years now. Is there any good sense in
continuing down a path of failure because we (USA) had an unresolved
disagreement with another country a long time ago? We (industry) are going
to have to push our own government to "wake up and smell the coffee" if
we're going to have a chance to compete on the Cuban work. Having "Johnny
come latelies" drilling in our own back yard sort of rankles...

George Z. Bush...

That's a stretch. They produce about a third of their annual consumption
and, even there, the production is delivered by a couple of Canadian
companies under license. Cuba apparently has neither the resources nor the
expertise to extract oil from their reserves without foreign help.

George Z