CONGRESSMEN FROM BUSH’S PARTY: Present bill to facilitate oil

Two Republican Congressmen presented a bill on May 12 that would make it possible for U.S. companies to make investments for oil prospecting in Cuban waters, according to the AFP.

The disquiet of the Republican majority in U.S. Congress assumed a distinct form this past week, which stems from reasonable U.S. business interests affected by the group of Cuban-Americans associated with the Bush family. The powerful nation’s policy on Cuba is hostage to such spurious objectives, in spite of the fact that five years ago, the majority of federal and state legislators expressed their determination for change, approving bills aimed at facilitating economic and trade relations between the two countries.

Senator Larry Craig of Idaho said that the U.S. people would be surprised and amazed if they knew that the country was suffering a serious energy crisis while foreign oil companies like "China, India, Norway, Canada and Spain have already…bought the rights to undertake exploratory drilling in the North Cuba Basin," just 50 nautical miles from the U.S. coast."

Fellow Republican and U.S. Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona said that there needs to be a "convincing reason" why U.S. companies cannot explore energy resources so close to home, and "I’m not sure that a 45-year-old embargo that has failed should be mentioned as a convincing reason," he said, according to the AFP.

The bill would allow U.S. companies to effect any transaction necessary and travel for business reasons without specific authorization from the U.S. government, unlike what that country’s laws currently require.

Craig also mentioned environmental problems in the Florida Strait, which are prevent oil prospecting along the coasts of that peninsula due to its importance for tourism.

The bill comes at a time when gasoline prices are rising dramatically and a growing number of Congress members are referring to Cuba’s incipient oil exploration program, and seeking to elude these prohibitions. Reference is made to the prospecting being carried out in Cuba by companies like Repsol of Spain and Sherritt of Canada, in spite of the threat of the Helms-Burton Act.

It is time to change the law and allow U.S. industries to explore and extract resources in "our own region" before foreign companies monopolize potentially profitable resources, he added.

With this bill, both Congressmen were responding to legislation proposed in Congress recently by supporters of Cuban-American Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican representative from Florida.

This group of legislators proposed intensifying even more the blockade against Cuba, refusing entry visas to employees of foreign companies involved in the Cuban oil program, and sanctioning individuals and companies who invest in that sector.

In another development, Senator Bill Nelson stated a few days earlier that he was planning a measure that would prevent Cuba from drilling in waters up to 50 miles off Key West. The Florida Democrat affirms that his bill would prevent President George W. Bush from renewing an international agreement allowing Cuba to carry out commercial activity in waters near its coast, close to the Florida Keys, unless the U.S. government obtains another agreement preventing Cuba from installing drilling platforms near Florida.

The waters of the Gulf of Mexico were divided into economic exclusion zones between the United States, Mexico and Canada under an agreement signed by James Carter’s administration in 1977.

Since 1999, when Cuba submitted to tender 50 sea blocks from that area, various foreign companies have carried out oil prospecting in its waters in association with Cuba’s state-owned enterprise Cupet.

Repsol has contracts for six blocks, covering a surface area of 10,702 square kilometers, and where the first drilling was carried out in 2004.

During that time, the Spanish company found oil about 30 km from the coast, but said at the time that its quality was not commercially acceptable.

Later, Repsol began accepting partners for sharing the financial risk, which was materialized with the incorporation of other companies into the project, assuming a percentage of the costs.

Coincidentally, Granma daily announced this week that a national record for oil drilling was broken this past week in a new well located in Varadero, 150 kilometers east of Havana.

Cuba has invited U.S. oil companies to participate, but they are prevented from doing so because of the blockade.

In February, a group of U.S. businesspeople interested in the issue met in Mexico with officials from Cupet. However, Cuban-American groups who are enemies of the Havana government got the Santa Isabel Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City to evict the Cubans from the hotel, under extraterritorial application of the Helms-Burton Act, which provoked strong criticism in the media and by Mexican politicians. The meeting was finally held in another hotel.

President Bush’s national and international policies have been causing him to rapidly lose support in the country, causing great disquiet in Republican Party ranks in a year of partial elections.