gulf spill causes concern about caribbean oil operations

The disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to cause concern about oil industry operations in the Caribbean.

In the US Virgin Islands, oil company officials are seeking to reassure the public that measures are in place to deal with any spills from tankers or from the refinery in St. Croix:

As oil spewing out of BP’s ruptured deepwater well rises to the Gulf of Mexico, so do questions about the measures in place to prevent permanent damage to delicate marine ecosystems.
The disastrous saga of BP’s Deepwater Horizon began a month ago, and the open pipeline has been gushing oil ever since, creating what is now the largest U.S. oil spill ever. Media reports say the company’s latest efforts to plug the leak with a “top kill” appear to have been in vain.

While there are no deepwater rigs that could pose similar problems in the Virgin Islands’ surrounding waters, the previous record-holder for the largest spill in U.S. waters was the Exxon Valdez, which poured over 10 million gallons of oil into the ocean in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989.

And there are plenty of tankers moving through territorial waters.

One of the world’s largest oil refineries, capable of processing up to a half million barrels of oil a day, is on St. Croix, and oil moves in and out of the territory on a daily basis — almost all of it transported over water.

Oil tankers come and go from HOVENSA’s harbor, with more than half of the oil processed at the plant coming from Venezuela, according to HOVENSA Vice President of Government Affairs Alex Moorhead.

But the tankers do not pose a serious threat anymore, officials said.

A citizens’ group in Belize has called for an end to offshore exploration in that country’s territorial waters:

Citing the disastrous impacts of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action (COLA) have written to Prime Minister Dean Barrow demanding that the government halt all offshore oil exploration in Belizean waters.

As early as January of this year, COLA had expressed its concern about the possibility of offshore exploration for oil in a letter to Director of Geology and Petroleum, Mr. Andre Cho.

On Wednesday, May 12, COLA wrote the Prime Minister calling for a moratorium on offshore drilling because it poses more risks than benefits, with the history of fatal accidents and injuries. They cited their frustration that oil exploration, which can harm marine life, would be allowed in protected areas where for conservation reasons, fishing is illegal.

COLA said they were fully cognizant of the implications of suspending legally binding concessions, but Belize would not be the first to do so: Costa Rica has also had to revoke licenses.

They demanded that an entirely new system be put into place and for a study be done to declare certain portions of Belize’s land as off limits for oil exploration, because of its sensitive ecosystem.

And a US private-sector delegation has been given permission to travel to Cuba to discuss safety and environmental management in the growing Cuban oil industry:

The U.S. government has licensed a Houston-based oil drilling group to travel to Cuba to start cooperation on safety and environmental practices following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
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The delegation would discuss the prospect of deepwater drilling offshore Cuba, the IADC.
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Although the oil that could threaten Cuba is gushing from a well in U.S. waters, experts say there is the same risk of an accident in Cuba’s plans to move forward with deepwater exploration drilling in its Gulf of Mexico waters.

“It is highly likely that we will see drilling in Cuban waters later this year,” oil expert Jorge Pinon said at a discussion of U.S.-Cuba engagement in the Gulf of Mexico at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank.
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At a conservative estimate, there could be 4.6 billion barrels of undiscovered oil in the Cuban waters of the Gulf, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The general assumption in the oil industry is that the restriction of the use of U.S. deepwater technology under Washington’s trade embargo has delayed exploration of Cuba’s oil and gas potential in the Gulf.

But oil experts and environmentalists say it is time to allow full cooperation with Cuba in oil safety practices so that U.S. technology to be quickly mobilized in the case of an accident as serious as the Macondo well blowout.

[Photo: Mooi Hsieh]

Tags: belize, cuba, usvi