Russia, China, Norway, Spain, India, and Brazil will begin oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Who is missing from this list?

David Goodhue of the Keys Reporter reports an interesting development in this era of Worldwide Greening!

"The argument about continuing the moratorium [of drilling off of much of Florida's coast] takes a different turn if everyone else is drilling all around us."

While the debate about drilling off the coast of Florida continues in Washington and the state Legislature, several international companies are getting started on projects that could bring oil rigs within 60 miles of the Keys by year's end.

Companies from nations like Norway, Spain, India, China, Russia and Brazil have signed exploration agreements with Cuba and the Bahamas that could mean drilling south of Key West this year, and 120 miles east of the Keys in the Cay Sal area of the Bahamas in fewer than two years.

This week, Cuba's communist newspaper Granma reported that the country's state oil company Cubapetroleo, or CUPET, inked a deal Tuesday with Russian company Zarubzhnieft to begin exploring for oil in four of the 59 blocks the island nation divvied up off its coast in the Gulf of Mexico. (More...)