From the Guardian. If the find pans out (or whatever the oil-prospecting term is), the political and economic implications are profound. Per capita, that’s a lot of oil.
20bn barrel oil discovery puts Cuba in the big league
Friends and foes have called Cuba many things – a progressive beacon, a quixotic underdog, an oppressive tyranny — but no one has called it lucky, until now.
Mother nature, it emerged this week, appears to have blessed the island with enough oil reserves to vault it into the ranks of energy powers. The government announced there may be more than 20bn barrels of recoverable oil in offshore fields in Cuba’s share of the Gulf of Mexico, more than twice the previous estimate.
If confirmed, it puts Cuba’s reserves on par with those of the US and into the world’s top 20. Drilling is expected to start next year by Cuba’s state oil company Cubapetroleo, or Cupet.