http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100523-703884.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
MAY 23, 2010, 3:28 P.M. ET
By Dan Molinski Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CARACAS (Dow Jones)–Oil-rich Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez derided the U.S. Sunday over last month’s drilling rig accident in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and said he sent oil experts to help its ally Cuba as the spill moves toward the island’s northern coast.
“This is very, very bad,” Chavez said, regarding the oil spill and its environmental implications. “It’s now threatening the coast of Cuba, so yesterday I sent a team to Cuba.”
Speaking during his weekly “Hello, President” television show, Chavez said Eulogio Del Pino, the head of production and exploration at state-run Petroleos de Venezuela, is leading a team of Venezuelan oil experts that will advise Cuba on how to handle the oil spill.
The Venezuelan crew is already on the ground with the Cubans “doing some drills, because the Cubans don’t have experience in this,” Chavez said.
The oil spill, Chavez added, “is gushing, and they haven’t been able to stop it.”
A U.S. State Department official earlier this week said it was in contact with Cuba regarding the spill and the possibility that the oil would reach the island nation.
The comments Sunday by Chavez, a frequent critic of the U.S. government, were his first extended public statements about the spill.
The accident happened April 20, beginning with a deadly explosion on the Macondo deepwater well, which Transocean Ltd. (RIGN.EB, RIG) was drilling for London-based BP PLC (BP.LN, BP).
Chavez, a socialist and recently-declared Marxist, also said he thinks the accident will derail U.S. President Barack Obama’s plans to expand offshore oil exploration in the U.S.
“This is going to demolish those plans by Obama,” Chavez said.
Venezuela had its own rig accident earlier this month, when a natural gas exploration rig leased by PDVSA began taking in water on May 12. Within hours the rig, owned by India-based Aban Offshore Ltd., had completely sunk. The nearly 100 workers on the rig were safely evacuated and the Venezuelan government has said there is no environmental risks and say there have been no signs of any leaks.
-By Dan Molinski, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-414-120-5738; dan.molinski@dowjones.com
Special thanks to Richard Charter