Arturo Lopez-Levy & Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado 

(THE HAVANA NOTE)-Scarabeo 9, the semi-submersible oil rig contracted by the Spanish company Repsol completed its journey from Singapore to Cuba. Repsol’s rig will explore Cuba’s exclusive economic zone, an area in the Gulf of Mexico of about 112000 square kilometers. Oil exploration in the zone is being contracted to several foreign companies such as Venezuela’s PDVSA, Malaysia’s Petronas, and Vietnamese PetroVietnam. Cuba’s Ministry of Basic Industry estimates the oil reserves in the zone are between 5 billion to 9 billion barrels of oil. CNN GPS host Fareed Zakaria referred to Cuba’s total oil potential as between 5 billion and 20 billion barrels of oil. This will place our closest Caribbean neighbor in the big league of oil producers in the Western hemisphere.

(http://thehavananote.com/2012/02/us_cuba_relations_scarabeo_9_heralding_change)