Multilateral meetings between Cuba and the US are becoming more frequent, although they often fly under the radar.
Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Relations, CubaMinRex, recently hosted a delegation from the US-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an independent, nonpartisan think tank, with offices in New York and Washington. The CFR delegation, which was organized by deputy director Julia E. Sweig, included a dozen "energy and environmental experts" focused on the safety and potential environmental effects of offshore oil drilling.
The delegation included: US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator William K. Reilly; Columbia University Prof. Jason Eric Bordoff, in the School of International and Public Affairs; attorney Michael R. Bromwich, Goodwin Procter LLP; David L. Goldwyn, signature Goldwyn Global Strategies; Harvard Law School Prof. Richard J. Lazarus; Catrinka's Megan Reilly Cayten; MyOwnMed's Vicki Seyfert-Margolis; and Dan Whittle, chief of the Environmental Defense Fund.
The group traveled to Cuba on 13 January for a 5-day visit. CFR said: "The group aims to promote the exchange of information and strengthen communication between US and Cuban experts, implementers and policy professionals in the exploration of oil and gas exploration, natural disaster mitigation, sustainability and coastal monitoring Gulf of Mexico."
The delegation is part of a long-term project called the Study Group on the Prevention and Resolution of Marine Disaster, sponsored by the CFR.
Diario los Americas, which broke the story on 13 Jan, pointed out controversy over the actual focus of the trip. Lawyer Mauricio Claver-Carone, executive director Cuba Democracy Advocates, told the newspaper that deepwater drilling had already proved unsuccessful off Cuba and the timing of the trip was suspect. He noted that the CFR does not support the US embargo on Cuba.
Former Florida governor (1979-1987) and Democratic former Senator (1987-2005) Bob Graham was part of the delegation. Although he supported the US embargo on Cuba during his 30 years in public office, he was also co-chair of the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, created by Executive Order in May 2010. The Commission was “tasked with providing recommendations on how the United States can prevent and mitigate the impact of any future spills that result from offshore drilling.”
In an interview with the Naples Daily News, Graham echoed the CFR’s environmental concerns, saying, "It's very important for the nation, and particularly important for Florida that any drilling done in that area be done at a very high standard of safety and with the capability to respond if there is an accident.” He added, “The reason for the trip is to talk to the Cubans, try to better understand what their plans are, what their capabilities are, and, frankly, how the international community ... can cooperate in a way to ensure that Cuba drills at the highest level of international safety standards."
"If there were a spill of any significant size, without question it would impact Florida," Graham said. “This is an inherently risky operation when you are drilling two or more miles under the ocean.”
This is the fourth US-Cuba multi-lateral meeting relating to offshore drilling in recent years, in an effort to develop protocols and policies to deal with oil spills.
In 2010, the Houston-based International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) sent a delegation to Havana, just after the Deepwater Horizon well blowout, for talks with state oil company Cupapetroleo (CUPET).
In July 2013, July, experts and officials from Cuba and the US met in St. Petersburg, Florida, as part of a multinational project to prevent oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, which also gathers Bahamas, Jamaica and Mexico.
US and Cuban delegations met again in November, at Access Intelligence-Clean Gulf Expo 2013 in Tampa, Florida. Among the group of seven senior Cuban officials were Jesus Perz, first secretary of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., and Yuri Gala Lopez, formerly the Cuban ambassador to Jamaica and now an executive at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Havana.
Efforts to improve environmental response capabilities are worthwhile, and may be timely.
Last week, Cubapetroleo announced plans to drill directionally into the Florida Strait. Three wells drilled offshore Cuba in 2012 by Malaysia's state-owned Petronas in partnership with Russia's Gazprom Neft were not successful. The semisubmersible Songa Mercur (pictured) was used during the drilling campaign.
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