Cuba oil boom may complicate U.S. embargo

The discovery of oil in the Florida Straits and near the Cuban shoreline -- potentially billions of barrels of reserves -- has boosted Cuba's energy prospects and drawn the attention of the U.S. oil industry.

Now, a small Canadian energy company, Sherritt International, says it plans to export Cuban oil for the first time -- a move that could put the crude on a collision course with the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

Details are few, but questions about the move go to the heart of the embargo: Where will the oil be refined? And how could Sherritt International or subsequent handlers keep the Cuban crude out of fuel being exported to the United States? The issues rise as the oil and gas industry turns its gaze to the prospect of oil drilling off Cuba -- currently forbidden fruit for U.S. companies.

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The Sherritt International plans drew fire from Cuban-American U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami.

'Sherritt is on the `short list' of companies that will have very serious civil as well as criminal legal problems in Cuba when the Cuban people recover their sovereignty and have a government that fights for their rights,'' Díaz-Balart said.

''Their oil investments will involve but a small part of their legal problems once the rule of law returns to Cuba,'' the lawmaker said in a statement e-mailed to The Miami Herald.

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