'Illegal' trade with Cuba costs Scottish oil firm PSL £82,500 US fine

'Illegal' trade with Cuba costs Scottish oil firm PSL £82,500 US fine

PSL Energy Services, the Scottish oil company rescued from receivership
four years ago but sold to US industry heavyweight Halliburton for more
than £100 million last month, has been fined £82,500 for breaching a
United States ban on conducting business with Cuba. According to the US
treasury department, Aberdeen-based PSL admitted that its subsidiary in
Texas illegally exported oil field servicing equipment to the Caribbean
island nation between April and September 2004.

Companies in the US are prohibited from dealing with Cuba under the
terms of a 45-year-old trade embargo, designed to undermine the
communist regime of the island's ailing president, Fidel Castro.
Advert for scotsman.com's football briefing

"PSL voluntarily disclosed that it may have violated the Cuban Assets
Control Regulations by engaging in the unlicensed exportation and re-
exportation of oilfield servicing equipment and related skilled services
to Cuba," the US treasury's office of foreign assets control said in a
statement that announced the $164,006 penalty.

Doug Duguid, he chief executive of PSL, said the company had no comment
about the fine.

The Scottish firm was founded in 2003. It employs almost 1,000 people
worldwide in energy operations, including the servicing and fitting or
oil rigs, with around 530 based in the group's home city.

This article: http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=805152007

Last updated: 23-May-07 00:20 BST

http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=805152007