Oil reserves may smooth way for improved Cuba-US relations

DEEP in the Gulf of Mexico, an end to the 47-year US trade embargo against Cuba may be lying untapped, buried under layers of rock and bitter relations.

Oil, up to 20 billion barrels of it, sits off Cuba's north-west coast in its territorial waters, says the Cuban Government - enough to turn the island into the Qatar of the Caribbean. At a minimum, estimates by the US Geological Survey place Cuba's potential deepwater reserves at 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 160 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, stores that would rank the island among the region's top producers.


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