Cuba would welcome U.S. oil companies if embargo ends

Cuba would welcome U.S. companies’ help developing its oil industry should the 47-year trade embargo on the communist island come to an end, said Manuel Marrero Faz, senior oil adviser at the Ministry of Basic Industries.

“We are open,” said Marrero Faz, noting that Chinese, Russian and Angolan companies are in talks to explore areas about 100 miles off the U.S. coast. “We’re very close to each other. We’re neighbors. Why not do business?”
Should nearby U.S. companies offer services and supplies, Cuba would be able to lower its costs and pick up the pace of development, said Marrero Faz, who learned geology as a student in the former Soviet Union. The difficulty of getting equipment from partners halfway around the world is a key reason only one offshore well has been drilled so far, he said.

Marrero Faz’s comments represent one of the strongest signals yet that Cuban President Raul Castro is ready for a new relationship with the U.S. under President Barack Obama. In Washington, Cuba’s incipient oil industry is helping fuel a growing campaign to ease the trade embargo that President John F. Kennedy imposed in 1962 to try to topple Fidel Castro’s Soviet-allied regime.

Tehran Times