Second company plans to drill between Cuba and Keys after first test well was dry

Naples Daily News/

A Spanish company's search for oil off the northern coast of Cuba has come up empty after raising concerns about the potential of an oil spill reaching Florida shores, but another exploratory well is in the works.

Oil giant Repsol began drilling in January less than 100 miles from Key West after pledging to adhere to U.S. drilling regulations and allowing U.S. inspectors to check out the rig before it entered Cuban waters.

 Raul Castro - Petronas Tower [2005]

With Repsol hitting a dry hole and the continued lack of a formal oil spill response agreement between the United States and Cuba, the floating rig now moves west to drill an exploratory well for Petronas, the state-run oil company of Malaysia, which is in partnership with Russia.

"The issues are the same but they now are a bit more complicated," said Jorge Pinon, an oil industry expert and a research fellow at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at The University of Texas.

For starters, Petronas' state-owned status raised legal questions about sovereign immunity from paying damages in the case of a spill, Pinon said. Because Petronas has no U.S. interests, unlike Repsol, the United States has less leverage over the company.

As for Repsol, the company is reviewing data it got from its dry exploratory well to determine its next move. Not finding oil — four out of five wells fail to produce — doesn't necessarily mean oil reserves aren't there, spokesman Kristian Rix said.  More >>
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Herbert Wong: This is the photo I took when President of Cuba, (then Vice President) Raul Castro during his visit to Malaysia in April 2005. I was with the Cuban delegation to visit the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

(Raul Castro being briefed on the construction of the Petronas Twin Towers. The Cuban delegation was hosted by the management of Petronas on the 83rd floor of the 88 floors twin towers. To the VP's right is Deputy Minister Dato' M. Kayveas , deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department, who was the Minister in Attendance during VP Raul Castro's visit. Photo taken on: April 23, 2005)