Cuba Hoping To Kickstart Offshore Oil & Gas Industry

The Cuban oil company Cubapetroleo, or Cupet, is close to a deal with Angola’s state-run Sonangol to get Cuba’s deepwater energy exploration program up and running three years after work was suspended because of failure to find any oil or gas.

A Cupet official told the British energy news service Argus Media that the two companies expect to begin operations next year on two of four areas of the Gulf of Mexico off the Cuban coast based on an agreement between Cupet and Sonangol signed in 2010. Cuba’s program of deepwater exploration was suspended after several foreign companies’ drilling efforts proved fruitless.

China builds military airstrip on disputed island

The newly built facility stretches across Woody Island, part of the Paracel chain, China’s Xinhua news agency said late Tuesday.

The Paracels are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, and tensions between Beijing and Hanoi rose this year over Chinese construction and oil exploration there.

The runway is Beijing’s latest physical assertion of control in the area, two years after it declared a city named Sansha centered on Woody Island — known as Yongxing in Chinese — to administer vast swathes of the South China Sea.

How China’s Enormous Fishing Fleet Is Being Used As a Surrogate Navy

But it’s not just about keeping Chinese bellies full. According to an excellent in-depth report from Reuters, Beijing is increasingly equipping fishing boats with geolocation devices, filling them up with subsidized fuel, and dispatching them to the disputed waters of the South China Sea, where they are clashing with rival fishermen from Vietnam and the Philippines.

120 Chinese boats protecting oil rig off Paracel Islands

China deployed around 120 vessels on June 8 to keep Vietnamese boats from getting close to its controversial oil rig in waters off the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, according to a spokesperson from Vietnam’s Bureau of Fisheries Inspection.