Haiti could have larger
oil reserves than Venezuela 1/28/10
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.”
Mathurin also stated that “We have identified 20 sites Oil…5 of them are
considered very important by practitioners and policies.”
President Hugo Chavez recently announced that he would write off the undisclosed
sum Haiti owes Venezuela for oil as part of the ALBA bloc’s plans to help
the impoverished Caribbean nation after the devastating January 12 earthquake.
“Haiti has no debt with Venezuela, just the opposite: Venezuela has a historical
debt with that nation, with that people for whom we feel not pity but rather
admiration, and we share their faith, their hope,” Chavez said after the
extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers of the Bolivarian Alliance for
the Americas, or ALBA.
He also announced that ALBA has decided on a comprehensive plan that includes
an immediate donation of $20 million to Haiti’s health sector, and a fund
that, Chavez said, will be at least $100 million ‘for starters.’
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Petroleum-1872 in the island of Santo Domingo
IV. MISCELLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.
1.
On the occurrence of Petroleum in the island of Santo Domingo; by W. M.
GABB (Editorial correspondence, dated Santo Domingo, April 20, 1872.
-We must add to the known localities of bituminous
products in tile West Indies a single locality; the Dominican Republic. This
is a spot about three miles north of the town of Azua, on a stream called
"el Agua hediondo," or stinking water.
The
spot reminded me strikingly of the California petroleum springs, not less
in the existence of oil, pitch, and gas, than in the usual broken-down steam
engine and fragments of artesian well tools lying scattered around.
The
spring makes its appearance as a stagnant, torpid pool, exuding slowly through
a heavy gravel deposit. Deposits of pitch cover a very small area in the
vicinity; for half a mile down the now dry bed of a rainwater stream, an
impure pitch, sometimes plastic, oftener hardened to asphaltum, as the case
may be, cements the gravel or sand.
The
pools of the spring and neighboring excavations contain a dirty water rendered
brown by contact with the oil, and on the surface is a thin pellicle of liquid
petroleum, dark brownish-green to reflected light, and reddish brown by transmitted
light.
On
rubbing a drop in the palm of the it does not disappear as readily as the
oil of California and the odor is not so much like kerosene, but rather fetid.
-An
attempt was made during the " oil excitement" of 1865 or 1866 to bore here.
The usual tools taken to the spot and eventually abandoned. In the piece
of pipe yet remains a small accumulation of oil, through which bubbles up
a gas. It is inodorous and is not inflammable. At the distance of a few
yards is a depression where there are several gas jets, and where, over the
whole area, there is not a single blade of grass or any other vegetation.
I
consider this locality especially interesting because it is the only spot
in the whole Republic of Santo Domingo where bituminous products are found,
and because of its resemblance in so many respects to the localities I have
seen in California. It also agrees with the springs of Trinidad in its appearance
and mode of occurrence. See the report of the Colonial Geologists, London,
1860, pp, 134 et. seq. See also Schomburgh, Hist. Of Barbados, pp. 553 and
569.
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