Havana, 7 sep (EFE).-A non-governmental experts in oil and in the environment of United States delegation is located in Havana in order to share experiences on how to prevent oil spills when performing drilling in deep-water of the island.
The group is headed by William Reilly, who was co-Chairman of the Commission of inquiry of the spill of crude oil caused in April of last year by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico platform.
Reilly also participated in the preparation of a report earlier this year that recommended that the Government of the United States.UU. working with Mexico and Cuba to develop and share standards of oil drilling with these countries in order to prevent future spills.
Also make up the delegation specialists Daniel Whittle, of the Fund of defence of the environment (EDF, for its acronym in English) and Lee Hunt, the International Association of drilling contractors.
Wittle Wednesday told journalists who are trying to “establish a space for a meaningful dialogue” on this matter with authorities Cuban.
“It is very important if Cuba is going to develop the oil drilling at sea who knows what is necessary to perform safe for the environment,” said Wittle.
American experts said that they have met the Cuban Minister of basic industry, Tomás Benitez, and the Director of America of the North of the Chancery, Josefina Vidal.
The expert said to be “optimistic” after interviews with Cuban officials, because he has seen that the door to Cuba is”open” to work in the area of the environment with EE.UU., because “it is not as complicated as others”.
“I am convinced that there are opportunities,” stressed.
Wittle believed that “it is very difficult to drill in deep waters and so we need to learn before you start to perform such work”.
“I know that Cuba is going to start drilling this year with the company Repsol, which has experience,” noted.
Cuba has in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico for an exclusive economic zone (ZEE) with an area of 112,000 square kilometers, divided into 59 blocs.
In 22 of those blocks operate under contracts foreign oil companies, such as the hispano-argentina Repsol-YPF, the Venezuelan PDVSA, the Norwegian Statoil-Hydro and the Vietnamese PetroVietnam.
Cuban authorities in the sector have said they are waiting for the arrival of an oil platform built in China and Singapore, the Italian company Saipem-owned and hired by Repsol YPF to start drilling in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Have also ensured that platform is a sixth generation and their operations in Cuba will have “the same security assurances given by the international oil community”.
Cuba claims more than 20 prospects with commercial importance in its EEZ, and believed that the reservations of the studied area are between 5,000 and 9,000 million barrels of crude oil were revealed after the analyses carried out in recent years. EFE
