Oil Drilling Off Florida Will Begin, Cuba Will Reap the Rewards
Global Post reported that drilling for oil is set to begin off the coast of Florida. Unfortunately, it will be the Cubans reaping the rewards, not the United States.
Somewhere between here and China, a hulking, hungry oil rig dubbed “Scarabeo 9” is making its way across the oceans, preparing to put a very controversial hole deep in the Gulf of Mexico.
To nervous Floridians, even its name suggests “scare,” or “scar.” It will puncture the sea floor in Cuban-controlled waters just 60 miles off the Florida Keys, not far from a protected coastline where offshore drilling is banned under U.S. law.
U.S. geologists believe there may be 5 billion barrels of oil down there. Cuban studies estimate the total at four times that, enough to put the island on par with mid-size energy exporters in the region like Ecuador and Colombia.
A major oil strike could rescue Cuba’s struggling socialist system from its financial woes, giving the Castro government access to new credit and a potentially lucrative industry.
Having conducted test wells in the area before, Spanish energy company Repsol and its partners are now bringing the Chinese-built Scarabeo 9 to a site off Cuba’s northwest coast, where it aims to drill as soon as November at a depth of more than 5,500 feet, deeper than the blown-out well that spewed 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf last summer. (Read More)
The Cuban government will be responsible for regulating the operations. I’m sure that will make Floridians feel better.
As far as American drilling is concerned, the Obama administration’s “permitorium” is continuing to wreak economic havoc, and Mark Tapscott notes that it’s only going to get worse.
But other than pointing to staggering unemployment figures and gas prices that remain nearly double what they were when the president took office in 2009, it’s difficult to convey the magnitude of the Obama energy crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. The consequences of this crisis far exceed in terms of human and economic losses those occasioned by the Deepwater Horizon disaster that was used to justify the Permatorium in the first place.
Watch this video put out by the Offshore Marine Services Association that explains things so even a child can understand. If Obama really cared about job creation, he would instruct Ken Salazar to lift this destructive permitorium.
-----------------If we don't drill, others will. Then it's their oil, not ours.