Salazar: Cuban offshore drilling 'issue of concern'

Salazar: Cuban offshore drilling 'issue of concern'
By Andrew Restuccia - 04/14/11 03:08 PM ET

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday that the United States is
closely monitoring plans by the Cuban government to green-light oil
drilling in Gulf of Mexico waters.

"For us it is an issue of concern. We're watching it closely," Salazar
told reporters Thursday. "It's an issue that we're monitoring carefully."

Spanish oil company Repsol and other companies are hoping to secure
approval from the Cuban government to drill off the country's shores in
the coming months.

While the Obama administration has touted its efforts to work with
Mexico to ensure a common safety standard for drilling in the Gulf, the
extent to which administration officials are working with Cuba on the
issue is unclear.

But Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement
(BOEMRE) Director Michael Bromwich told reporters Tuesday that U.S.
officials have met with executives at Repsol to discuss their plans to
drill in the Gulf. Bromwich said U.S. officials plan to continue
discussion with Repsol executives.

Salazar, in remarks Tuesday, added that the Interior Department is
working with the State Department to ensure that any drilling off Cuba's
coastline, which is just 60 miles from the tip of Florida, is safe.

"What we will do is within the framework of our national policy to make
sure that it is done in as safe a way as possible," Salazar said.
"That's something that we are working on with the State Department and
BOEM."

But the Cuban government did not participate in a forum Thursday in
Washington in which officials from a dozen countries and the European
Union discussed drilling safety.

"As global neighbors, we have a shared responsibility to improve the
safety of offshore energy development around the world," Salazar said in
a statement on the forum Thursday. "Today's dialogue has laid a strong
foundation for international cooperation in the name of safety, and I
look forward to continuing to work with these countries to develop
advanced containment technologies."

An Interior Department spokeswoman declined to give details on the
extent to which U.S. officials are working with Cuba to ensure adequate
safety standards are in place in that country.

The spokeswoman directed The Hill's questions to the State Department.
The State Department did not immediately return a call for comment.

In the aftermath of last-year's massive oil spill, the Interior
Department issued a series of beefed-up safety standards that include
requiring companies to prove they can contain a major well blowout.

In recent months, Salazar has focused in part on ensuring that those
safety standards are applied throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Salazar and
Bromwich have worked with Mexican officials to develop what they've
called a "gold standard" of safety when it comes to Gulf drilling.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/156123-salazar-cuban-offshore-drilling-issue-of-concern