Haiti Earthquake | February 01, 2010 | 5 comments

Haiti could have larger oil reserves than Venezuela

source: http://bit.ly/a60U70

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ras_menelik
Amidst the utter devastation left in the wake of the earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12th, new findings indicate the existence of 3 million barrels of oil in a shallow formation offshore the island.

The Greater Antilles, which includes Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and their offshore waters, probably hold at least 142 million barrels of oil and 159 billion cubic feet of gas, according to a 2000 report by the US Geological Survey. Undiscovered amounts may be as high as 941 million barrels of oil and 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the report.

Among nations in the northern Caribbean, Cuba and Jamaica have awarded offshore leases for oil and gas development. Trinidad & Tobago, South American islands off the coast of Venezuela, account for most Caribbean oil production, according to the US Energy Department.

According to French scientist Daniel Mathurin, “The Central Plateau, including the region of Thomond, the plain of the cul-de-sac and the bay of Port-au-Prince are filled with oil”. He added that “Haiti's oil reserves are larger than those of Venezuela . An Olympic pool compared to a glass of water that is the comparison to show the importance of oil Haitian compared to those of Venezuela.”

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5 comments // Haiti could have larger oil reserves than Venezuela

  • CalgarC
    • +1
      CalgarC  

    • who cares about the damn oil anymore... everytime a country gets destroyed we talk about how much oil it might have...

    • 2 years ago
  • citizen_86
  • Saladin
  • Vicki_Vickstopherson
    • +1
      Vicki_Vickstopherson  
    • Saladin:

      Yah it does seem sketchy that the US would go through the trouble of exiling a popular Haitian president (twice) in support of one not as good at uniting the people, and then turn around and beg people to donate. I'm not trying to make light of a tragedy, I'm just saying that not everyone is just a Good Samaritan.

    • 2 years ago
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  
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    • For the record, Haiti has a large reserve of oil and natural gas. How could it not? It shares the waters with oil producing island from all around. We noted this also. Besides, this is not new or a surprise to the United States and certainly shouldn't be new to "a geologist who worked in the region for 30 years for companies including the former Mobil Corp."

      There's always been oil in Haiti. The US /USAID guaranteed an oil contract for an American businessman named Charles C. Valentine back in November 1962 that gave his company a monopoly control over pretty much everything to do with oil in Haiti and seems to have also paid him to back out of it.

      Valentine successfully claimed $327,304 from the development agency, a sum USAID was itself able to extract from the Haitian government along with $4,396 in interest charges.

      According to Haitian scholar Dr. Georges Michel, the US has known there's oil and natural gas reserves in Haiti since 1908 and did their explorations in the 1950s and locked up what they found as "strategic reserves for the US" to be tapped when Middle Eastern oil became less available. (See, Oil in Haiti by Dr. Georges Michel) I've been writing for years now that the US has been trying to get rid of Haiti's democratically elected government since 1991 so they could get to "their" strategic reserves without any fear of a populous president nationalizing the oil and gas reserves to benefit the miserably poor majority in Haiti as has been done in Venezuela or elsewhere in Latin America. (See, Haiti is full of oil, say Ginette and Daniel Mathurin, where these scientist say there's more oil in Haiti than in Venezuela.) No one has been listening. Not even the white liberals who are such defenders of Haiti. To the best of my knowledge, other than Haitians, over the long years before the earthquake, the only non-Haitian observers who ever paid attention and picked up on our reports and concerns about the plundering and pillaging of Haiti's riches, were John Maxwell and Chris Scott of CKUT Radio in Canada.That's it. All the others bought the State Department line that Haiti was a charity case and had no resources to mention. I supposed if they acknowleged Haiti could be self-reliant, these savoirs, wouldn't have a gig to support themselves and their heroic self-image, right?

      Oil in Haiti, reasons for the US occupation, Part 2: http://bit.ly/cPpDUi

    • 2 years ago
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