Premier is not one of the world's biggest oil companies. It has oil reserves of just 195 million barrels, a fraction of the 4.7 billion barrels held by, say, British Petroleum.
It's not deterred by the so-called Helms-Burton law that bars U.S. companies from trading with those who took over $1.8 billion of assets in Cuba formerly owned by the likes of Coca-Cola Co., Texaco Inc. and Colgate-Palmolive Co.
The potential oil fields Premier is exploring simply aren't the same kind of assets, it says.
``We are on very solid legal ground,'' said Richard Haythornthwaite, a board director with Premier in charge of exploration.
Cuba itself would be delighted if Premier's exploration proves successful. Cuba needs oil badly. It has struggled since its oil supplies dried up when the Cold War ended in 1989.
Lacking the patronage it built with the Soviet Union in three decades, Cuba's economy shrank 35 percent in the following four years. Blackouts became routine, the United States tightened its economic embargo through Helms-Burton, and predicting the downfall of Castro became fashionable.
Now, a handful of oil companies led by Premier Oil and Canada's Sherritt International Corp. are spearheading a push to find huge petroleum deposits in the resource-poor Caribbean nation, a move that if successful would prove embarrassing to United States and stoke tensions with the European Union.
``Finding oil would be like Christmas for Cuba,'' said Tony Kapcia, an expert on Cuba's modern history at the University of Wolverhampton in England. ``Almost the last thing the U.S. government wants at any stage is for Fidel Castro to survive yet another president's term and then to find oil on top of that.''
In the next few weeks, London-based Premier is expected to go ahead with plans to drill a new well to probe for oil reserves under Cuba's land mass, company officials say.
Acknowledging the prospect is a long-shot, with odds of success of perhaps 20-to-1, Premier said it has identified underground rock structures that might contain between 500 million and a billion barrels of oil -- a world class find.
``It is massive,'' said Haythornthwaite of Premier. ``If this comes in, Premier would be a fundamentally different company and Cuba would be a fundamentally different country.''
The odds are against success. Cuba's last oil discovery in 1995 tapped oil so heavy it more resembled boot polish than fuels like the diesel and gasoline derived from crude petroleum. Major oil companies have looked at the nation's prospects and walked away.
``On the basis of the geology we've seen there's nothing we'd go for down there,'' said Rodney Chase, a British Petroleum Plc managing director in charge of oil exploration and production. ``That doesn't mean there isn't opportunity for someone else.''
Charles Jamieson, chief executive of Premier, counts himself among a growing group of executives who believe doing business in rogue nations such as Cuba, Libya, the Sudan and Iran is the best way to urge an electorate toward democracy.
``We believe that engaging these countries is better than not speaking to them,'' Jamieson said. ``We can be in these countries and make a difference.''
Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald