Deepwater oil exploration in Cuban waters is scheduled to begin later this year. This has raised concerns about the need for oil spill contingency co-operation between Cuba and the U.S.. It was recently recommended that The Bahamas should also be part of any such agreement, because a spill in Cuban waters could affect Bahamian territory:
Poor relations between the U.S. and Cuba and the lack of an oil-spill management agreement could make any future disaster far worse for The Bahamas, according to Jorge Pinon, a Research Fellow for the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University.
To face this threat, Pinon, former president of Amoco Oil Mexico and Latin America, is one of a number of oil experts pressing for a U.S./Cuba oil-spill management agreement.
Pinon believes it’s in the interest of The Bahamas to be party to such an agreement.
In fact, he’s expected to present his case by way of testimony before the U.S. Congress within the coming months.
The warning comes as exploratory oil drilling off the northwest coast of Cuba may commence as early as November, with an oil rig now en-route there from China.
Expected to delve 5,600 feet, the well will drill deeper than the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which last year was the site of the largest offshore oil spill in history from April 20 to July 15.
Jorge Pinon told Guardian Business the depth of the anticipated exploratory well, however, was less a reason for concern than its location and the absence of a specific agreement on how a disaster would be handled.
“[The site for that exploratory] well happens to be sitting in the middle of the current of the jet stream, where current shoots out of the Gulf of Mexico. That’s the area where the gulfstream has the fastest speed,” he said.
“The currents in the gulfstream would move that oil in a way that, regardless of where the spill is, it could jeopardize any of the four countries that make up the Straits of Florida/Gulf of Mexico basin.”
Those four countries are the United States, Cuba, Mexico and The Bahamas…
Find out more in the full article from the Nassau Guardian.
There are several previous Green Antilles items about oil exploration in Cuba: In 2011, oil driling will begin in Cuban waters, Gulf spill causes concern about Caribbean oil operations, Cuba to begin oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, The Cuban oil rush.
And about The Bahamas and oil exploration there: Maritime boundary negotiations between Cuba and The Bahamas, Bahamas says no to oil exploration, Updates on oil prospects in The Bahamas.
[Photo: NASA Goddard Photo and Video]
