Exploratory Oil Drilling Done Off Cuba

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http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/040725/energy_cuba_repsol_1.html

HAVANA (Reuters) - Drilling of an exploratory well in Cuba's virgin Gulf of Mexico waters that could make the Communist nation an oil exporter and undermine the U.S. embargo has been completed, a senior official said.

Work on the well by Spain's Repsol YPF (Madrid:REP.MC - News) began in June and captured the attention of the industry and governments due to its potential economic and political consequences.

"The drilling has ended and the Spanish company is assessing the results. We don't know if there is good quality oil yet. We expect to be informed in two weeks," the Cuban official, who spoke on the condition he was not identified, said on Saturday evening.

The oil industry is watching closely the first ever well sunk in Cuba's 43,000-square-mile exclusive economic zone in the Gulf, which may hold large quantities of medium-grade crude.

A commercially viable find could transform the cash-strapped island from oil importer to petroleum exporting nation, adding pressure on the United States to lift its four-decades-old trade embargo against President Fidel Castro's government.