Reporting on Castro's Oil Hearsay

at 8:20 AM Monday, September 26, 2011

From CNN's Fareed Zakaria, to Time's Tim Padgett, to the Castro regime's usual apologists in Washington, D.C., there's been a barrage of articles this week on off-shore exploration plans by Cuba's dictatorship.

So were there any new developments?

Nope.

As with practically every story on this issue, the latest (re-)interest was due to speculation -- not to any independent verification -- derived from a conversation with Castro regime officials.

Specifically, it was due to comments from Lee Hunt of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, who just returned from a trip to Cuba and is now regurgitating everything Castro regime officials (strategically) told him.

In other words, it's based on hearsay.

If this were a legal case, it be would dismissed. However, journalism doesn't have the same standards.

This is the same modus operandi used by the Castro regime in 2008 -- fueled by media and political speculation -- that the Chinese were drilling off Cuba's coasts.

At that time, the alarm bells were rung and soon thereafter came calls for the immediate and unilateral lifting of U.S. sanctions, so that U.S. companies could provide support to the Castro regime in this endeavour.

Sound familiar?

Well, here we go again.

The current zeal is such that it's even making reporters forget to fact check.

For example, Time's Tim Padgett says:

Repsol, Statoil of Norway and ONGC of India will get the drills diving in six fields near Havana, while five other firms, including Petrobras of Brazil, have signed up for about 20 others.

Padgett obviously failed (or forgot) to verify that Petrobras (the only company, other than Spain's Repsol, that could seriously undertake such an effort) has publicly decided to take a pass on Cuba (due to poor prospects).

Moreover, even the most optimistic "experts" -- those that dream of oil fortunes for the Castro brothers -- admit that even if oil was found off-Cuba's shores, it would take at least 3-5 years before production could actually begin.

But that's still not stopping them from putting the cart before the horse.

The fact remains that U.S. sanctions have made it commercially impractical for the Castro regime or its foreign partners to effectively explore for oil off Cuba's shores and impossible to produce in the future, if (and it's still a big if) oil is ever found -- unless a democratic government prevails before.

That's right -- impossible.

Their current bet is that if oil is found, then overwhelming interest would force U.S. oil companies to lobby Congress to lift sanctions, so that they could produce, refine and market it here -- like Chavez's Venezuela does.

Otherwise, where else are they going to do it? There aren't any other commercially or geographically feasible options.

And then, the U.S. could increase its dependency on yet another petro-dictatorship -- for that's served U.S. interests so well in the last century (sarcasm).

Finally, it's fascinating why those with supposed "environmental concerns" regarding Castro's exploration plans -- such as the usually anti-drilling Environmental Defense Fund -- don't just lobby Congress to pursue the only full proof way to protect the environment -- prevention.

And that's very simple -- if Repsol persists, sanction the billions it currently holds in U.S. oil drilling concessions.