From TWN, AFP, via China Post, “Cuba reveals plans to drill 5 new oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico by 2013“:

HAVANA — Cuba on Tuesday announced plans to drill five deep-water oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico beginning this summer, expressing confidence that its efforts will be rewarded with major new energy finds.

“We’re about to move to the drilling phase,” said Manuel Marrero, an official with the government authority tasked with overseeing Cuba’s oil sector. “We’re all really hopeful that we will be able to discover large reserves of oil and gas,” said Marrero, who added that the ventures would be undertaken with the help of unspecified foreign companies.

There’s a new pitch: End Cuba sanctions so U.S. can import its oil!

From U.S. News and World Report, “Cuba Plans New Offshore Drilling in Search for Big Oil Finds in the Gulf of Mexico“:

HAVANA—Cuban officials say that exploratory drilling to assess the potential for oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to resume in the second quarter of this year, a sign that lower world oil prices have not derailed efforts by the Cuban government and its foreign corporate partners to keep moving toward offshore oil production.

Cuba believes it has major oil reserves in its waters. But the prospect of exploratory drilling—followed by likely future commercial drilling—in the Florida Straits has fired controversy in the United States, with the expectation that someday, foreign oil firms could be drilling as close as about 50 miles from parts of Florida.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has been supportive-to-ambiguous about OCS drilling.