OBAMA ENERGY POLICIES REDISTRIBUTE GULF OIL TO CUBA

Obama Energy Policies Redistribute Gulf Oil to Cuba

By Jerry A. Kane

Communist Cuba will begin drilling for oil 60 miles from the Florida Keys as early as November or December.  The Italian-made, semi-submersible Scarabeo 9 rig will be operated by the Spanish oil company Repsol.

The communist Chinese owned oil rig will drill wells deeper than British Petroleum’s Macondo oil well, which the Deepwater Horizon rig was drilling when it exploded last April in the Gulf of Mexico causing the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.  

“They [Cuban officials] know they’ve never regulated oil and gas in the offshore environment before. They know it’s an order of magnitude more sophisticated and more risky. They’re going to go very deep. All of those are going to require training, expertise and a culture they’ve not had. They’ve got a lot to do.”—William Reilly, former EPA administrator

This past April, Shell Oil was forced to abandon drilling in the Artic off the Alaskan coast because Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency refused to grant needed air permits claiming the drilling would be hazardous to the 250 villagers who live 70 miles away.

“For decades, the minority party has blocked one effort after another to responsibly develop the energy resources our country possesses, transforming vast areas of opportunity into ‘The No Zone.'”—Larry Craig, former U.S. Senator (R-Idaho)

A U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there is more oil in the eastern Gulf of Mexico than in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Last December Barack Obama’s Bread and Circuses Administration banned U.S. offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico through 2017.

“From the administration’s war on coal to the serious consideration it is giving to imposing a nationwide regulation of hydraulic fracturing, to its shut down of deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, to its ‘endangerment finding’ from the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], the administration is practicing its own form of selected industrial sabotage.” Bonner Cohen, National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) senior fellow

Cuba’s wells will be so close to the United States that a major spill could contaminate all the beaches along the Atlantic coastline.

“What we do have a concern with are the impediments to the operator and contractor acquiring, in a timely fashion, the appropriate technology for prevention, and in the event of a disaster, for spill response and containment.”— Lee Hunt, International Association of Drilling Contractors president

Obama’s “de-facto moratorium” continues to hinder energy production and undermine businesses in the Gulf region. A major find in the Gulf would ensure his energies policies have achieved success in redistributing money from the US economy to Cuba’s cash-strapped communist government.

I.M. Kane

For more on the story, see Drilling off Keys to begin by December, Cuban Offshore Drilling Plans Raise U.S. Concerns, US Compaines Banned – But Cuba Will Begin Drilling Off Florida Coast By December, and Obama suspends offshore exploratory drilling.