109 HR 5353 IH: Western Hemisphere Energy Security
U.S. House of Representatives
2006-05-11
text/xml
EN
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
1.This Act may be cited as the
Western Hemisphere Energy Security
Act
.
2.
(a)Congress
finds that—
(1)the United States
is the largest oil importer in the world;
(2)the Federal
Government predicts that, by 2025, 68 percent of the oil used in the United
States will be imported;
(3)2/3
of the oil reserves of the world are located in the politically unstable Middle
East and are controlled by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries;
(4)global fuel
consumption is projected to increase by 100 percent to 150 percent during the
next 20 years, driven largely by the Chinese and Indian economies;
(5)that increased
demand for fuel—
(A)will place the
United States in ever-greater competition for oil and gas resources; and
(B)may result in an
extension of Chinese involvement in developing Cuban oil and gas reserves to
within a few miles of the coastline of the United States;
(6)the United States
adheres to the principle that, in a case in which the exclusive economic zone
of the United States is contiguous to the exclusive economic zone of another
country, a point equidistant to the maritime baselines of the 2 countries
demarcates the exclusive economic zone of each;
(7)an example of the
application of the principle described in paragraph (6) is that the exclusive
economic zone of Cuba extends to within—
(A)52 miles of the
Florida Keys at—
(i)south of 24
degrees north latitude; and
(ii)east of -81
degrees west longitude; and
(B)85.4 miles of the
Florida peninsula at—
(i)south of 24
degrees north latitude; and
(ii)east of -81
degrees west longitude;
(8)Cubapetroleo, the
state oil company of Cuba, recently—
(A)signed an oil
production sharing agreement with the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation;
and
(B)purchased 3
deep-water drilling rigs from that Chinese state enterprise for use in the
exclusive economic zone of Cuba;
(9)the exclusive
economic zone of Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico is a 112,000-square-kilometer area
that has been divided into 59 exploration blocks, each of which is
approximately 2,000 square kilometers and an average depth of 2,000 meters
(except that some of those blocks have a depth of as great as 4,000
meters);
(10)the northernmost
of the exploration blocks described in paragraph (9) are located off the
southwest coast of the State of Florida;
(11)a United States
Geological Survey report entitled “Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas
Resources of the North Cuba Basin 2004” estimated that between 1,000,000,000
and 9,300,000,000 barrels of undiscovered oil and between 1,900,000,000,000 and
22,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas along the northern
coast of Cuba;
(12)the national
security strategy of the President recognizes the increasing resource needs of
China by stating that China is expanding trade, but acting as if they
can somehow lock up energy supplies around the world or seek to direct markets
rather than opening them up.
;
(13)the United States
embargo on Cuba prohibits United States companies from engaging in the
exploration or extraction of hydrocarbon resources from the exclusive economic
zone of Cuba;
(14)United States oil
and gas industries are the world’s leaders in the efficient and
environmentally-safe extraction of oil and gas resources from marine deposits;
and
(15)it is in the
energy, national security, and environmental interests of the United States
that the oil and gas companies of the United States be permitted to operate in
the foreign exclusive economic zones that is contiguous to the exclusive
economic zone of the United States.
(b)The
purpose of this Act is to permit United States companies to participate in the
exploration for and the extraction of hydrocarbon resources from any portion of
a foreign maritime exclusive economic zone that is contiguous to the exclusive
economic zone of the United States.
3.Authorization of
activities and exports involving hydrocarbon resources by United States
companies
(a)Notwithstanding
any other provision of law (including a regulation), United States persons
(including agents and affiliates of those persons) may—
(1)engage in any
transaction necessary for the exploration for and extraction of hydrocarbon
resources from any portion of any foreign exclusive economic zone that is
contiguous to the exclusive economic zone of the United States; and
(2)export without
license authority all equipment necessary for the exploration for or extraction
of hydrocarbon resources described in paragraph (1).
(b)In
this section, the term United States person
means—
(1)any United States
citizen or alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United
States; and
(2)any person other
than an individual, if individuals described in paragraph (1) own or control at
least 51 percent of the securities or other equity interest in such
person.
4.Travel in
connection with authorized hydrocarbon exploration and extraction
activitiesSection 910 of the
Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7209) is
amended by inserting after subsection (b) the following:
(c)General license
authority for travel-related expenditures by persons engaging in hydrocarbon
exploration and extraction activities
(1)The Secretary of the Treasury shall authorize under a
general license the travel-related transactions listed in section 515.560(c) of
title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, for travel to, from, or within Cuba in
connection with exploration for, and the extraction of, hydrocarbon resources
in any part of a foreign maritime exclusive economic zone that is contiguous to
the United States’ exclusive economic zone.
(2)Persons authorized to travel to Cuba under this
section include full-time employees, executives, agents, and consultants of oil
and gas producers, distributors, and
shippers.
.