• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 08 / 04 / 2011

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Pinon: Cuba, Bahamas face similar challenges on oil drilling. By INDERIA SAUNDERS. NG Business Reporter. NASSAU's Concerns over oil drilling for millions of barrels of oil in Cuba and any spillover effects on a still unregulated Bahamas may be for naught, with an international energy expert reminding that the two countries face similar challenges.

According to Jorge Piñón, the former president of Amoco Oil Mexico & Latin America, Cuba's drilling will be to the highest standard now required for drilling.

"The submersible should be in Cuba sometime around November (and) there is a lot of pressure in the states, everybody is waiting for that rig to come down and start drilling," he told Guardian Business in a recent interview. "They are taking every single new regulation and they are copying them and making them a part of their own regulations.

"Cubans have the same challenges you have, but they know the value and need for that oil... They said we understand we have to explore, but by golly (the oil companies) better do it right."

Oil revenues have been used globally to enrich countries and protect their futures. Pinon pointed to Norway as an example of how one country has addressed its oil revenues, establishing an untouchable fund to benefit future generations when its oil reserves are depleted.

The Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) currently has five existing oil exploration licenses with terms and conditions outlined for how much revenue the government would take in royalties and other fees from the licenses, should the time come that valuable crude or gas is extracted commercially. Those agreements came into effect April 26, 2007.

BPC has said it expects the regulatory regime under which drilling will be supervised to be put in place within the next two years. CEO. Dr. Paul Crevello explained that the company didn't need a license for drilling. Instead, he said an obligation for drilling was included in BPC's present exploration license.

That license gives the company up until 2013 to drill a well in Bahamian waters.Environment Minister Earl Deveaux last week reiterated the government's stance on drilling for oil in The Bahamas, asserting the issue required widespread consultation before any decision will be made.

"The government has imposed a moratorium on further oil exploration in The Bahamas," he told Guardian Business. "The government will abide by the terms contained in current leases. The government will not permit any further exploration or permit any drilling until a complete environmental impact assesment has been done.

"The government seeks to have a regulatory and legislative environment of the highest standards, fully digested by the Bahamian public, in place prior to considering any application for drilling for oil in The Bahamas."

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/125421