The oil from BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster has now reached Cuban waters. WTSP-TV in Tampa reported four days ago:
There are now reports of an oil sheen just offshore of Cuba. This implies the oil has reached the southeastern extent of the loop current and could continue east through the Florida straights.
That prediction seems imminent. Click the image to enlarge a graphic of projected ocean currents that will lead the oil sludge around Florida, scraping past Cuba, through the Keys, then up the East Coast.
According to The Guardian, the Cuban government in Havana has called in oil-spill experts from Venezuela to help stave off the ruin of Cuba's beaches amid reports of coastal tarballs.
One might think that the Cuban Communist Party would be eager to use the situation to decry the misdeeds of its capitalist neighbors, but the BP disaster has surprisingly received very little coverage in Cuba's official publications like Granma and the Havana Times. But Cuba themselves have also been drilling for oil - their Cubapetroleo company has been eagerly tapping the area's vast oil reserves with the assistance and encouragement of their Chinese partners, the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (SINOPEC).
Where will it all end? The Belfast Telegraph notes that if the oil follows natural ocean currents, it will eventually reach Ireland, and beyond.
