HAVANA, (Reuters) – A Chinese-built drilling rig is expected to arrive in Cuban waters in early 2011, likely opening the open the way for full-scale exploration of the island’s untapped offshore fields.
Companies with contracts to search for oil and gas in Cuba’s portion of the Gulf of Mexico have already begun preparations to drill once the Scarabeo 9 rig gets to the communist-led island.
An official with Saipem, a unit of Italian oil company Eni SpA <ENI.M> told Reuters yesterday the massive semi-submersible rig should be completed at the Yantai Raffles <YRSL.NFF> shipyard in Yantai, China by the end of this year.
The journey to Cuba will take two months, and once it arrives it will be put into operation almost immediately, said the official, who asked not to be identified.
It will be used first as an exploratory well for a consortium led by Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF <REP.MC> <REP.N>, which drilled the only offshore well in Cuba in 2004 and said at the time it had found hydrocarbons.
Cuba has said it may have 20 billion barrels of oil in its offshore, but the U.S. Geological Survey has estimated a more modest 4.6 billion barrels and 10 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Repsol has been mostly silent on the long delay in drilling more wells, but it is widely assumed in the oil industry it was due to the longstanding U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.
The embargo limits the amount of U.S. technology that can be used, which complicates finding equipment because U.S. companies have long dominated the offshore oil business.
