TAMPA — To protect Florida from oil spills, drilling is prohibited under a federal moratorium within the state's Gulf of Mexico maritime borders.
So why is the United States standing aside as Cuba considers drilling for oil as close as 45 miles from Key West — using equipment considered second rate at best?
The question was taken up last week by U.S. military leaders, environmentalists and drilling consultants during a panel discussion in Tampa on the challenges of responding to oil spills in the Caribbean region.
"The U.S. oil field products are simply the most technologically advanced," panelist Lee Hunt, an oil drilling consultant, told the audience.
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But Cuba can't get its hands on that equipment under a U.S. rule restricting the transfer to the island nation of any equipment containing more than 25 percent of U.S. content. Such a deal requires a specific Treasury Department exemption from the rule.
The rule covers oil drilling rigs. Even foreign countries that might sell U.S.-made equipment to Cuba refrain from doing so to stay on the good side of a major trading partner.
Drilling with anything second rate increases the possibility of an accident, so perhaps all oil drilling equipment should be exempt from the 25 percent rule, Hunt told the Tampa Bay Times.
Past oil exploration in Cuban waters has come up dry but the Cuban government has reiterated its intention to try again, perhaps as early as late 2017.
"Cuba is within its complete legitimate national right to drill," Hunt told the audience at the Tampa Convention Center during the Clean Gulf Conference, which focuses on oil spill prevention, preparedness and response.
An overview of Cuba's oil spill prevention and response plan was presented during the panel discussion by Raul Rubén Costa Gravalosa, the island nation's chief of natural and technological disasters mitigation.
Cuba's program is "quite robust," Hunt said, and on par with the United States' own protocols. Still, Cuba lacks access to the resources needed to contain a major spill.
"It makes a whole lot of sense to put a cork on a bottle as fast as you can," said Douglas Derr, strategic business manager with Houston-based oil well-control company Boots & Coots.
"We cannot help if our government does not allow us to. We have talked to Cuban officials and they are interested in our services. Now we just need the U.S. to open the door."
A bilateral accord being negotiated between the United States and Cuban governments would enable them to work together if an oil spill in one nation's waters threatens the other's.
Asked by the Times when it might be finalized, Cuba's Gravalosa had no comment.
Panel moderator Forest Willis, incident manager for the U.S. Coast Guard in Miami, would say only that it's being worked on.
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Explore all your options"It will get done," Hunt told the Times. "It's best for Cuba and it's best for the U.S. if we work together."
Contact Paul Guzzo at pguzzo@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3394. Follow @PGuzzoTimes.