The Oil Castro's blackmail show out at the Malecon

Cuba Oil rig could be off Key West in two weeks

The Scarabeo 9 semi-submersible oil rig photographed in China after it was built in 2011. The moveable platform is expected to begin drilling exploratory wells off Cuba, and near Key West, in the coming weeks.(Photo courtesy of Keppel FELS)

KeysNet.com

By David Goodhue/  dgoodhue@keysreporter.com

The Scarabeo 9, a giant semi-submersible oil rig headed to Cuba, set sail from its temporary port in Trinidad and Tobago this week, observers said.
It could be in the Florida Straits between Cuba and Key West in two weeks.
The moveable $750 million drilling platform was just given a passing grade by inspectors with the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, as well as members of the U.S. Coast Guard.
U.S. inspectors toured the rig while it was in Trinidad and Tobago on invitation from Spanish oil company Repsol, which will be the first of several international drilling companies to explore for oil in Cuba's part of the Florida Straits. The agencies released a statement that their "personnel found the vessel to generally comply with existing international and U.S. standards by which Repsol has pledged to abide."
"The review is consistent with U.S. efforts to minimize the possibility of a major oil spill, which would hurt U.S. economic and environmental interests," the joint Coast Guard/DOI statement says. "The review compared the vessel with applicable international safety and security standards as well as U.S. standards for drilling units operating in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf."
Jorge Piñon, a former energy industry executive and current visiting research fellow at the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, said the Scarabeo 9 lifted anchor off Trinidad and Tobago Wednesday morning and the voyage to the northern coast of Cuba would likely take 14 days.
Piñon, a former executive with British Petroleum, has been involved in talks about the operation with the U.S. and Cuban governments, as well as the companies that will use the rig.
Daniel Whittle, Cuba program director with the Environmental Defense Fund, who has been a close observer of the country's energy endeavors, also said he heard the Scarabeo 9 will arrive off Cuba in two weeks. Piñon said he expects exploratory drilling to get started very soon after the rig arrives because the contract between Repsol, Eni S.p.A — the Italian company that owns the Scarabeo 9 — and the Cuban government begins when the platform gets there.
He also said it behooves Repsol to get started as soon as possible since the company is paying $511,000 a day to use the rig. He expects an exploratory well to be drilled within 60 to 70 days of the Scarabeo 9's arrival.
The Scarabeo 9 will operate as close as 50 miles from Key West. The prospect of an oil drilling operation taking place that close to the United States has raised concerns from offshore drilling opponents and state and federal lawmakers.
Some concern from the latter comes from those opposed to seeing the Communist Castro regime become a major energy player in this hemisphere. Since information about the building of the Scarabeo 9 became public about two years ago, several members of Congress have introduced legislation aimed at punishing companies taking part in the operation.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's district includes the Keys. She's a fervent critic of the Castro government and issued a statement this week criticizing the Obama administration for allowing U.S. inspectors to conduct what she calls a "routine safety certification of the rig."
"The issue at hand is a state sponsor of terrorism is poised to achieve a tremendous economic boon by entering the oil business and potentially endangering U.S. waters to boot. It is deeply disappointing that the Obama administration appears content to just watch that happen," she said.
Environmentalists are concerned because of the depth of the project. The Scarabeo 9 will drill 6,000 feet underwater. The 2010 DeepWater Horizon/British Petroleum spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which took 85 days to staunch, happened at a depth of 5,500 feet.
But Whittle said he believes Cuba is committed to preventing such a disastrous spill from occurring off its coast, and the recent positive U.S. inspection should serve to calm some worries. But he also criticized the United States government for adhering too strongly with its 50-year-old trade embargo against Cuba. This would largely prevent U.S. companies with expertise in oil cleanup from helping in the event of a disastrous spill in Cuban waters.
"U.S. interests can only be protected with broad dialogue and cooperation between our two countries - something the Cubans have been open to, but the U.S. government is still proceeding cautiously on that front," Whittle said in an e-mail to The Reporter.
The amount of oil located in the area of the Straits that Repsol will explore is not certain. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates about five billion barrels, but the Cuban government thinks the offshore lease holds up to 20 billion barrels.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/13/2587909/oil-rig-could-be-off-key-west.html#storylink=cpy

Cuba offshore oil rig set to arrive in Trinidad

News wires 

A Chinese-built drilling rig that will be used in Cuba's new push into offshore oil exploration is set to arrive in Trinidad and Tobago in the coming days where it will be inspected by officials, the US Coast Guard said on Tuesday according to a report. 

Communist-ruled Cuba hopes the oil project, which is slated to begin next year, can breathe new life into its troubled economy, Reuters reported.
But the venture has aroused opposition in neighboring Florida, a Cuban exile stronghold, where officials worry any drilling for oil poses environmental risks, the news wire said.
In an effort to allay US concerns, Spain's Repsol YPF, the leader of a three-company consortium spearheading the exploration, invited American authorities to inspect the rig before it arrives in Cuba.
The massive Scarabeo 9 rig is expected to pull into Trinidad and Tobago waters around Christmas and officials from the US Coast Guard and Interior Department will conduct the inspection during the first full week of January, Coast Guard Rear Admiral William Baumgartner told reporters.
The inspection will last three to four days, with the rig set to sail for Cuba a week after it is completed. US officials "should be able to inspect everything on the rig that's possible," Baumgartner said.
Trinidad and Tobago is the headquarters of Repsol's Caribbean operations.
Once the rig arrives in Cuba, Baumgartner said, it will be used at a well site north of Havana, some 12 miles (19 kilometres) off the Cuban coast.
Cuba has largely been tight-lipped about its offshore exploration plans.
The project has sparked calls for the United States to cooperate with Havana to avert any possible environmental accident similar to the massive BP oil spill in the US Gulf of Mexico last year. More >>

Sen. Marco Rubio Highlights Concerns on Nicaragua & Cuba Policy

Sen. Rubio Slams Abuses Of Administration's People-to-People Cuba Program

Prevention of Cuba's Drilling Best Serves U.S. Interests

Huffington Post/ Mauricio Claver-Carone

Reasonable minds should be able to agree that it's not in the United States' national interest to assist anti-American dictators in searching for oil to support their repressive, failing regimes. It won't drop the price of gas in the United States or do anything to enhance our "energy independence."

Yet American assistance to make oil-drilling in the Florida Straits profitable is exactly what Cuba's dictators Fidel and Raul Castro hope to gain as they use the threat of oil-drilling to maneuver the Obama Administration into once again unilaterally lifting U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

Cuba's search for leverage over the United States is not new. The Castro brothers have been using offshore-drilling as a lure to extract economic and political concessions from various nations since 1991, when the collapse of the Soviet Union ended that country's hefty subsidies to Cuba.

Brazil recently declassified documents showing that in 1993 the Castro regime offered oil rights on the "most promising" areas of Cuba's offshore waters to then-President Itamar Franco and Brazil's national oil company Petrobras. In exchange, Cuba wanted Brazil to shun Cuban dissidents and cancel a meeting of Cuban exiles at Brazil's Washington Embassy. The Franco government all-too-happily complied. Years later, Petrobras exited Cuba empty-handed.

More >

What if Cuba’s Offshore Oil Project, Only 100 Miles From Florida, Goes Wrong? Read more: What if Cuba’s Offshore Oil Project, Near Florida, Goes Wrong?

The goal is to find new deep-water oil reservoirs. The tool is Scarabeo 9, an advanced mobile drilling platform that supports a crew of 200 and can bore more than 9 miles into the ocean floor. The problem is its destination: Cuba.

Built in China and equipped in Singapore, the Italian-owned Scarabeo 9 is now on its maiden voyage from Asia to the Atlantic. The structure itself is designed to sustain 100-knot winds and waves almost 90 feet high, and the mobile platform is stabilized by hulking, submerged pontoons. Indeed, the rig itself doesn’t present unique safety concerns, but its target—the so-far-untapped oil reserves in deep Cuban waters—lies less than a hundred miles from the Florida coast. Scarabeo 9 is scheduled to arrive in Cuba by December and begin exploratory drilling by January, but U.S. officials are hurrying to figure what could happen, and who would respond, if an oil rig failed so close to Florida’s coast.

Read more: Popular Mechanics

Cuba drills where Obama fears to tread

Good news, domestic energy fans! After extraordinary delays, it looks like there will finally be some energy production activity in the Gulf of Mexico once again. This time it’s in the fertile fields to the south and west of Florida, employing some brand spanking new deep-water drilling rigs with all the latest technical features. This is terrific, and I’m sure you’ll all join me in congratulating President Obama for moving forward with this much needed expansion of …

What’s that? We’re not the ones doing the drilling? Then who is?

Oh, for crying out loud.

The government is doing what it can to ensure that the first full-scale oil exploration in Cuba’s part of the Gulf of Mexico will not endanger Florida’s pristine beaches that lie only miles away, the top drilling regulator told lawmakers on Tuesday.
But the assurances did not completely convince senators at a Capitol Hill hearing that the United States would be prepared to respond to a worst-case oil spill scenario in waters controlled by its long-time Communist foe.

The Cubans are partnering up with Spanish energy producer Repsol YPF SA and preparing to move a large, semi-submersible ocean going rig built in China into the gulf. They’ll be drilling roughly sixty miles off from the Florida Keys. Given the wide dispersal of that field, we could have already been tapping into those resources, but apparently the oil will go elsewhere. But fear not, sports fans! The president has a plan. He’s going to inspect the rig.

I’m sure that makes everyone feel better. More from The Hill.

More >

The Environmental Lobby's Cuba Hypocrisy

Capitol Hill Cubans
Last month, the nation's largest environmental organizations released a letter calling on President Obama to block (at all costs) the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would span from the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.

Here's the letter:

Dear President Obama:

Many of the organizations we head do not engage in civil disobedience; some do. Regardless, speaking as individuals, we want to let you know that there is not an inch of daylight between our policy position on the Keystone Pipeline and those of the very civil protesters being arrested daily outside the White House. This is a terrible project–many of the country’s leading climate scientists have explained why in their letter last month to you. It risks many of our national treasures to leaks and spills. And it reduces incentives to make the transition to job-creating clean fuels.

You have a clear shot to deny the permit, without any interference from Congress. It’s perhaps the biggest climate test you face between now and the election. If you block it, you will trigger a surge of enthusiasm from the green base that supported you so strongly in the last election. We expect nothing less.

Sincerely,

Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund
Michael Brune, Sierra Club
Frances Beinecke, Natural Resources Defense Council
Phil Radford, Greenpeace
Larry Schweiger, National Wildlife Federation
Erich Pica, Friends of the Earth
Rebecca Tarbotton, Rainforest Action Network
May Boeve, 350.org
Gene Karpinski, League of Conservation Voters
Margie Alt, Environment America
Kevin Knobloch, Union of Concerned Scientists

So why don't they join Congressional efforts to block (through punitive sanctions) foreign oil companies from drilling with Cuba's brutal dictatorship just 90 miles away?

Instead, they want President Obama to "work together" with the Castro regime in its drilling efforts.

Such hypocrisy.

U.S. lawmakers urge Spanish oil company to leave Cuba

By ERIKA BOLSTAD

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- Thirty-four U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Spanish oil company Repsol to keep out of Cuban waters, saying the firm's pending offshore drilling plans would support the Castro regime and "bankroll the apparatus that violently crushes dissent."
"The decaying Cuban regime is desperately reaching out for an economic lifeline, and it appears to have found a willing partner in Repsol to come to its rescue," said the author of a letter to the company, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.
The company says it could begin exploratory drilling as soon as December, a prospect that has the Florida and federal governments scrambling to develop contingency plans for a spill even as many Floridians have fresh memories of last year's BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
"We are working on spill response and we're working with the federal, state and local agencies - very closely," said U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Marilyn Fajardo.
The possibility of exploratory drilling also has federal agencies grappling with the international and political implications on the U.S. embargo with Cuba.
Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned Repsol in the letter that any drilling operations it conducts in Cuban waters could provide direct financial benefit to the Castro dictatorship. The company's partnership with the Cuban regime also could violate U.S. law and may run afoul of pending legislation in Congress, she said.
Recently, representatives from several industry and environmental groups traveled to Cuba to check in on the country's offshore plans. They included Lee Hunt, the chief executive of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, and William Reilly, a former EPA administrator and co-chairman of the White House task force that investigated last year's BP oil spill.
The group also included Richard Sears, the former vice president of deepwater drilling for Shell, and Dan Whittle, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund.
Repsol spokesman Kristian Rix said the company had no comment on the letter from Congress.
The company, which has U.S. operations that include leases in the Arctic waters off the northern Alaska coastline, is in the process of bringing a drilling rig to Cuba.
Repsol in January 2010 signed a lease contract with the Italian energy company Saipem for drilling equipment. Repsol on its website describes the equipment as complying "with all the technical requirements and all the limitations established by the U.S. administration for drilling operations in Cuba."
The Republican-led House Natural Resources Committee had scheduled a hearing on drilling in Cuban waters for last week, but it was postponed after Obama administration officials said they weren't yet prepared to outline their overall response to offshore drilling in Cuba.
Some Republican members of the committee have complained in the past about Cuba's ability to drill so close to the U.S. coastline even as a 125-mile buffer zone remains in place in U.S. waters off of most of Florida's coast.

The congressional letter drew bipartisan support, with Florida Republican Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, David Rivera, Tom Rooney, Vern Buchanan, Dennis Ross and Sandy Adams signing onto it; they were joined by Democrats Ted Deutch, Frederica Wilson and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Also signing the letter were: Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind.; Rep. Steve Austria, R-Ohio; Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif.; Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga.; Rep. John Carter, R-Texas; Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga.; Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J.; Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.; Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa.; Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash.; Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill.; Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C.; Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich.; Del. Pedro Pierluisi, D-Puerto Rico; Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J.; Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio; Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y.; Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich.; Rep. Steven Rothman, D-N.J.; Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y.; Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa.; and Rep. Edward Royce, R-Calif.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/28/2430088/us-lawmakers-urge-spanish-oil.html#ixzz1ZImVloo4

Cool Obama Starting to Sweat

 

AP

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told Fox News that President Obama became agitated and abruptly walked out of today’s debt talks at the White House – allegations that Democratic sources strongly deny.
“He (the president) became very agitated,” Cantor told Fox News. “He said ‘Ronald Reagan wouldn’t sit here. You either have to compromise on the dollar figure or the grand bargain’…He said ‘Don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people on this.’”
Cantor said Obama shoved back and said, ‘We’ll see you tomorrow’ – noting the meeting “ended with (the) President abruptly walking out of the meeting.”
However, a senior Democratic aide told Fox News that Cantor’s version of the meeting is not accurate.
“Congressman Cantor is the last guy who should complain about people abruptly walking out of meetings,” the unidentified aide told Fox.
Another House Democratic source, familiar with the meeting, called this Cantor’s “Gingrich back-of-the-plane” moment.
“Obama was concluding the meeting, giving the closing remarks and talking about meeting tomorrow,” the source told Fox. “Cantor interrupted him and raised for the third time doing a short-term (so after it had already been addressed twice), and Obama shut him down. Cantor was playing the role he’s played throughout this whole thing – being not productive.”
Yet another, congressional aide said that President Obama “dressed down” Cantor.
“The President spoke for several minutes uninterrupted about how he would not be deterred in doing what is best for the country,” the aide said. “The meeting ended with Cantor being dressed down while sitting in silence.”
Cantor told Fox News today’s meeting “was the most tense meeting of the week.”
President Obama was quoted as saying, "This may bring down my presidency, but I will not yield on this."

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/debt-meetings/2011/07/13/agitated-obama-storms-out-debt-meeting?cmpid=NL_FiredUpFoxNation_20110714#ixzz1S6fmmRZ0

Que bueno era #Osama, que bueno los americanos...

que le dan musulmana sepultura a su "ENEMIGO" PUBLICO No. 1, siguiendo estrictamente todos los rituales musulmanes para su jerarquia, incluyendo su enterramiento a las 24 horas posteriores a su fallecimiento en el MAR [?????].

Todo justo en el momento cuando el otro musulman ENEMIGO SECRETO de la civilizacion occidental, atraviesa su peor momento en su carrera politica que compromete seriamente sus pretensiones reeleccionistas.

Como bien lo expresa: "Bajo mi direccion,...

Que poco honor le rinden que no muestran al menos un cuerpo de mas de 6 pies de estatura con todos los trapos caracteristicos de la clasica vestimenta musulmana, aunque tenga un rostro irreconocible, para que sea venerado por sus fieles y por nosotros los infieles.

La Ley de Ajuste Cubano tiene sus dias contados

Como resultado de la 4ta ronda de las  conversaciones migratorias realizadas entre los gobiernos de Cuba y los Estados Unidos, en el dia de ayer en La Habana, el viceministro cubano de exteriores Dagoberto Rodríguez, en declaraciones a la prensa afirmo que "La delegación cubana reiteró una vez más que el contrabando de emigrantes no podrá eliminarse ni se podrá alcanzar una emigración legal, segura y ordenada entre los dos países, mientras se mantengan la Ley de Ajuste Cubano y la política de pies secos-pies mojados, que estimulan las entradas ilegales de ciudadanos cubanos a los Estados Unidos".

La delegacion estadounidense insistio en la liberacion inmediata del subcontratista norteamericano Allen Gross, quien se encuentra detenido desde diciembre del 2009 sin cargos formales por parte del regimen de La Habana, en condicion de rehen o moneda de cambio. 

Mientras que en el 2010 el numero de "balseros" interceptados en el mar por la Guardia Costera de Estados Unidos, es el mas bajo en 28 años [2.088], ninguna de las dos delegaciones analiza las causas sustantivas que impulsan a una nacion a emigrar empleando los medios y oportunidades que logren conjugar, desde un matrimonio con el primer [a] incauto [a] a mano, o "desertando " en cualquier viaje al extranjero, o lanzandose al mar en cualquier objeto flotante.

Dada la complacencia de la actual administracion norteamericana entre otras evidencias que apuntan en la misma direccion, y a pesar que una congresista cubana-americana, preside actualmente la comision de relaciones exteriores, la Ley de Ajuste Cubano puede irse flexibilizando tal y como ocurre con la Ley Helms-Burton, al punto de convertirla en un instrumento de la politica del Kaxtrizmo.

Cuba Migration Talks
US Department of State (press release)

Obama won't allow drilling off Atlantic, Florida

Obama won't allow drilling off Atlantic, Florida | Reuters

Luego solo quedaran las perforaciones que comenzara a ejecutar los parnerts cubanos a solo 49 millas de la costa floridana. 

Saudi King heads to US for treatment

US 'lost' nuclear codes in 2000 - Americas - Al Jazeera English

US 'lost' nuclear codes in 2000 - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Obama: "...queremos asegurarnos de que el régimen castrista es serio, y la piedra de toque para eso será la libertad..."

"Hemos iniciado algunos cambios, pero antes de dar nuevos pasos queremos asegurarnos de que el régimen castrista es serio, y la piedra de toque para eso será la libertad", dijo, pronunciando la última palabra en español para infundirle más énfasis..." Estados Unidos condiciona nuevos pasos hacia Cuba a la "seriedad" de su régimen

Obama: Todavia estoy esperando por los cambios en Cuba

Obama awaits 'full results' of Cuba's vow for change

El incidente de Tomkin cubano???

Podria convertirse el provocado incidente de la detencion del subcontratista norteamericano en Cuba, en el incidente del Golfo de Tomkin cubano???

Porque a este nivel nadie es tan estupido para mandar a un tipo a repartir celulares y computadoras sin saber que el regimen lo pondria a buen recaudo.

EEUU exige a Cuba que cumpla con sus obligaciones y permita acceso ...