U.S., Cuba eye offshore drilling possibilities

U.S., Cuba eye offshore drilling possibilities
Bill Loveless, Special for USA TODAY 7:30 a.m. EDT October 25, 2015

HAVANA — The thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations is raising prospects for new
business opportunities for American companies in the island nation,
among them energy.

That was evident this past week in Havana, where more than 120 people
from the U.S., Cuba and other countries gathered for a cutting-edge
conference on offshore oil development.

The Safe Seas Clean Seas Symposium was organized by the Houston
consulting firm Hunt Petty LLC to promote cooperation in preventing and
responding to spills in Cuban waters as Havana plans to resume drilling
next year, following unsuccessful exploration in recent years.

Given that the drilling would occur as close as 50 miles from Florida's
coast, doing so safely and with the best equipment is critical to both
Cuba and the U.S., even as the decades-old U.S. embargo on trade with
Cuba continues to restrict transactions between the two countries.

As Jay Hakes, a former head of the U.S. Energy Information
Administration and a speaker at the Havana conference, put it: "If there
ever is a spill like the Macondo well, it would get to the U.S. in a
couple of days."

That reference, of course, was to a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico that
exploded in 2010, resulting in the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.
The incident, along with the U.S. embargo, came up frequently over the
course of the two-day meeting.

But the prevailing interest among participants was becoming familiar
with each other.

"It's timely in the sense that it's the first time it's been possible
for a U.S. entity to hold a conference in Cuba" since the Obama
administration and Cuba began to normalize relations last year, said Lee
Hunt, a partner in Hunt Petty LLC and a former president of the
International Association of Drilling Contractors.

"It's also the first time that business persons and professionals who
are American citizens could travel to Cuba for the purpose of
participating in such a meeting. It's groundbreaking in that sense."

Among those attending the event at a Havana hotel were representatives
of the Cuban government and the Cuban oil company, Cupet, as well as
U.S. Coast Guard officers and staff from the recently reopened U.S.
Embassy in Havana.

Others at the meeting included representatives of U.S. companies with an
eye out for eventual business in Cuba, including Cameron, a maker of
drilling equipment, and Wild Well Control and Witt O'Brien, two
businesses that respond to oil emergencies, plus non-U.S. companies
already active in Cuba's oil sector.

Environmental concerns were represented, too, including the
Environmental Defense Fund and the Gulf of Mexico Foundation.

Hunt, who has organized several other smaller, lower-profile meetings
between American and Cuban officials in the U.S. and Trinidad, said the
two governments' interest in the event was significant.

"They were paying attention on both sides," he said.

James Watson, president of the Americas Division for ABS, a
Houston-based provider of standards for marine operations and a speaker
at the event, found Cuba's commitment to safe drilling convincing.

"I've heard directly from the highest-level officials that I spoke to
here that they don't want to start (offshore oil drilling) again unless
they have the best technology and the appropriate response
preparations," said Watson, a retired Coast Guard rear admiral who until
recently was director of the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement, which regulates drilling in U.S. waters. "That's a good
thing. Hopefully, some of the barriers can be brought down."

Taking a similar view of the discussions in Havana were Hakes, whose
government work included a stint as the director of research for an
Obama administration commission that investigated the 2010 spill in the
Gulf of Mexico, and Roberto Suárez, the deputy general director of Cupet.

"I think the meeting demonstrates that U.S-Cuban relations are moving
steadily forward, and energy is playing a big part in that progress,"
Hakes said. "Given that just a few years ago the two countries were at
odds with each other, it was remarkable how well everybody got along and
generally had a comparable view of what the problems are and how they
should be addressed."

"It's accomplished a lot," Suárez said. "For me, it's networking. It's
the most important thing."

Loveless — @bill_loveless on Twitter — is a veteran energy journalist
and television commentator in Washington. He is a former host of the TV
program Platts Energy Week.

Source: U.S., Cuba eye offshore drilling possibilities -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/2015/10/25/loveless-us-cuba-offshore-drilling/74472964/