Cuba's Second Offshore Oil Well Attempt Proves Unsuccessful

In the Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico, exploratory drilling projects have, for the second time this year, been unable to discover any major amounts of oil and gas.

Cubapetroleo, a state-owned agency, stated that the active petroleum system identified by Malaysia's PC Gulf and Russian firm Gazpromneft does not constitute a commercial find. The attempt was carried out off of the Pinar del Rio coast at a depth of over 15,000 feet. They used the same Scarabeo-9 rig that Repsol – a Spanish oil company – used and produced the same unsuccessful results.

However, no one is giving up. A plan to carry out a three-dimensional seismic analysis of other blocks in the coming months is underway, reports Fox News. Currently, Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA is to begin drilling with the Scarabeo-9 rig at a spot off the Cape of San Antonio, Cuba's westernmost point.

Sources maintain that Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) has extreme potential for the discovery of hydrocarbon reserves based on geological analyses. Estimates put the EEZ’s capacity at holding anywhere from 5-20 billion barrels of crude oil.

Cuban oil production has remained unchanged at some 4 million tons annually for the past five years.