Numbers You Can Trust -- Sort Of About the Bakken, But Not Really

Link here to a CBS Miami story.

This is a story about a new huge oil rig off Cuba but within "90 miles" of Florida operated by a Spanish oil company and jointly financed by the Chinese.

So, while our administration slow rolls our oil industry in the Gulf (no links; I'm tired of linking universal truths), bans oil from Canada, and promotes the Brazilian oil industry, China is moving into the Gulf "big-time."

But this is what caught my eye and why I enjoy following the Bakken:

Repsol is the the first of several international companies that will use the Scarabeo 9 to look for oil in the the Florida Straits, where the US Geological Survey estimates about five billion barrels of oil sit under the ocean floor. The Cuban government thinks the amount is much higher -- around 20 billion barrels. 

In the Bakken:

CLR is one of many independent companies that will use the huge H&P rigs to look for oil in the Williston Basin, where the US Geological Survey esimates about 3.6 billion barrels of oil sit under the prairie plains. The CEO of CLR thinks the amount is much higher -- around 24 billion barrels.

One of those two indented paragraphs was written by a professional journalist; the other paragraph was written by an armchair observer of the oil industry.

A "tip of the hat" to Greg who sent me the link, where you can find him at Four-Fifty Gas.