Cuba Looks for Oil off Florida Coast

Cuba is now looking to drill for oil just a few miles off the coast of Florida, USA.

An offshore oil and gas rig is expected to come into effect next year with the help of the Spanish energy company called Repsol.

Industry experts have said that the drilling will go deeper than that of the Deepwater Horizon, the BP oil rig which exploded then sank at the Macondo Prospect, causing the worst oil spill in the history of the US. Concerns over this offshore drilling project are naturally being raised.

The new oil wells are about 50 miles from the Florida Keys and while off-drilling is banned in the US near the coast of Florida, the location lies in Cuba’s sovereign waters. Oceanographers have warned that a similar explosion would send oil first to the Cuban beaches and then onwards to the Florida Keys in a matter of three days.

Luis Alberto Barreras Canizo, of Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment said that Cuba needs to find its oil, it is a resource that Cuba needs. There seems little chance of the oil well being not pursued by the Cubans.