US must step up Cuba oil spill readiness - experts

US must step up Cuba oil spill readiness - experts
Fri Jul 1, 2011 9:47am EDT
* Florida lawmakers trying to stop Cuba drilling
* Obama facing prickly political situation
* Experts say U.S. must coordinate with Cuba
By Jeff Franks

HAVANA, July 1 (Reuters) - With Cuba preparing to explore for oil 60
miles (96 km) from Florida, the complicated politics of U.S.-Cuba
relations are impeding U.S. efforts to get ready in case of a BP-style
accident, analysts and oil experts said.

The Obama administration must do more to ensure that U.S. companies can
quickly mobilize safety and containment equipment should a well blow
out, which could do catastrophic damage to the Florida coast, the
experts said in recent interviews.

The blowout of a BP (BP.L) well off Louisiana last year killed 11
people, took 85 days to control and spilled 5 million barrels of oil
that killed wildlife and blackened beaches along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Cuba's first well, expected to be drilled this fall, will be in 5,600
feet (1,706 metres) of water, deeper than the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico.

But not much has been done as Florida lawmakers, and powerful
Cuban-American leaders in particular, cling to their decades-old dream
of toppling Cuba's Communist government, said Washington attorney Robert
Muse, a specialist in Cuban issues.

They have proposed bills aimed at killing Cuban oil development by
discouraging oil companies from working there, and are resisting the
notion that the U.S. needs to work with the island to assure adequate
emergency response, he said.

"They want to keep the place in a state of economic misery and hope it
will ignite once the Castro brothers are gone," he said. "It's that old
dream of strangling the Cuban economy."

The issue is a prickly one for U.S. President Barack Obama, with Florida
looming crucial in his 2012 reelection campaign and many of the state's
lawmakers opposed to concessions to the Cuban government led by
President Raul Castro.

U.S. Senator and Cuban exile Bob Menendez of New Jersey sides with the
Floridians on Cuba issues and, unlike most of them, is a Democrat.

Obama has stayed largely on the sidelines of the Cuba drilling issue,
taking little public action and making few comments about it.

His administration's biggest step so far was to send U.S. Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar to Spain this month to meet with officials of the
oil company, Repsol YPF (REP.MC), that is set to drill the first
offshore well.

U.S. SAFETY STANDARDS

Salazar said the company told him it would meet all U.S. safety
requirements and allow the U.S. to inspect the Chinese-built drilling
rig it will use.

Also, at least two U.S. oil safety companies are currently licensed by
the U.S. government to go to Cuba should there be an accident requiring
their help. Experts say many more are needed, and the U.S. State
Department has said it will approve more.

The long-standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba prevents American
companies from working there without U.S. permission.

But the administration has not taken what many experts consider the most
critical step -- meeting directly with the Cubans to develop joint
safety regulations and protocol.

The U.S. commission that investigated the BP blowout recommended
coordination with Cuba to assure both the safety of its offshore
development and an adequate accident response.

Cuba has said it would welcome U.S. involvement in its oil industry.

"Their environment is our environment, too, so we should do everything
we can to find ways to collaborate," said Cuba expert Phil Peters at the
Lexington Institute think tank in Arlington, Virginia.

"The drilling is going to occur and if the U.S. simply looks the other
way, then Repsol will not have the best possible resources available,"
he said.

The U.S. already has a joint oil spill response with Mexico and could
bring Cuba into that agreement, said Jorge Pinon, an expert on Cuban oil
at Florida International University.

"They (the Obama administration) are terrified of talking to the
Cubans," he said. "Somebody is telling them 'don't get together with the
Cubans.'"

Legislation proposed by Florida lawmakers would ban foreign oil
companies working in Cuba from exploring for oil in the United States
and prevent executives of companies investing more than $1 million in
Cuban oil operations from getting U.S. visas. It would also require any
companies drilling off Cuba to show their operations meet U.S. safety
standards.

While Florida lawmakers want to protect their state from oil spills, the
Cuba oil issue is also an emotional one for Cuban Americans who long for
political change in their homeland.

Cuba believes it may have 20 billion barrels of oil offshore, which
would be a big boost to its lagging economy and, in the eyes of its
opponents, a despotic regime.

"The Cuban regime is desperately attempting to prolong its overdue
existence and tyrannical influence be setting up this oil rig," U.S.
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, who chairs the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, recently told the Florida Keys Keynoter.
(Editing by Tom Brown)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/01/cuba-usa-oil-idUSN1E76009920110701