The Straits of Florida, Florida Straits, or Florida Strait () is a

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

located south-southeast of the North American

mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or demogr ...

, generally accepted to be between the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, and between the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami a ...

(U.S.) and

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. It is 93 mi (150 km) wide at the narrowest point between

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

and the Cuban shore, and has been sounded to a depth of 6,000 feet (1,800 m). The strait carries the

Florida Current The Florida Current is a thermal ocean current that flows from the Straits of Florida around the Florida Peninsula and along the southeastern coast of the United States before joining the Gulf Stream Current near Cape Hatteras. Its contributing cu ...

, the beginning of the

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude (North Carolin ...

, from the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil and gas

Five wells were drilled in state waters south of the

from 1947 to 1962.

Gulf Oil Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the Seven Sisters (oil companies), Seven Sisters oil companies. ...

drilled three wells in federal waters south of the Florida Keys in 1960 and 1961. All the wells were dry holes. The boundary between the

Exclusive Economic Zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

s of the US and Cuba is halfway between Cuba and Florida, as determined by the 1977 Cuba–United States Maritime Boundary Agreement.

Offshore Cuba

Cuba has three producing

offshore oil Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the te ...

fields within 5 km of its north coast opposite Florida. The

US Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

estimates that the North Cuba Basin contains of undiscovered petroleum liquids and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, almost all in the offshore part of the basin. The issue of allowing oil and gas exploration offshore Florida became a hotly contested topic in the 2008 US elections. In a column published 5 June 2008, syndicated columnist

George Will George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator. He writes columns for ''The Washington Post'' on a regular basis and provides commentary for '' NewsNation''. In 1986, ''The Wall ...

wrote that a Chinese oil company was then drilling in

n waters from the Florida coast, a claim that was repeated by candidates in favor of offshore drilling. In fact, no drilling was then taking place in that part of Cuban waters. In 2004 the Spanish oil company

Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31Originally an init ...

drilled in deep Cuban waters between Cuba and the Florida Keys, and found an oil deposit; the deposit was judged noncommercial, and the hole was plugged. In October 2008, Cuba signed an agreement with the

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian state oil company

Petrobras Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by and Trade name, trading as the portmanteau Petrobras (), is a Brazilian state-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. ...

, which provides for Petrobras to drill for oil and gas in deep waters off the north shore of Cuba. In July 2009, Cuba signed an agreement with the Russian government giving the Russian oil company

Zarubezhneft JSC Zarubezhneft () is a Russian state-controlled oil company based in Moscow that specializes in exploration, development and operation of oil and gas fields outside Russian territory. Sergei Kudryashov is the company's General Director and Ye ...

oil exploration rights off the north shore of Cuba. By May 2011 Petrobras had withdrawn from the 2008 agreement due to poor prospects.

Offshore Bahamas

In 2009 the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

-registered company Bharat Petroleum Company Ltd. and Norwegian company

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. It is primarily a petroleum company operating in 36 countries with additional investments in renewable energy. In th ...

announced a joint venture to drill for oil in Bahamian waters north of Cuba and southeast of Florida. The government of the Bahamas has indicated that applications for offshore drilling are on hold pending negotiations with Cuba, the United States, and the

Turks and Caicos Islands The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and no ...

on the exact boundaries between their respective

Crossing

The swim across the strait was performed by Australian

Susie Maroney Susan Jean Maroney (born 15 November 1974) is an Australian former marathon swimmer. In 1997, aged 22, Maroney was the first woman and second person to swim the Florida Straits from Cuba to the United States with a shark cage. In 1998 she ...

(with

Shark cage diving Shark cage diving is underwater diving or snorkeling where the observer remains inside a protective cage designed to prevent sharks from making contact with the divers. Shark cage diving is used for scientific observation, underwater cinematograp ...

) in 1997 and American

Diana Nyad Diana Nyad (née Sneed; born August 22, 1949) is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and long-distance swimming, long-distance swimmer. Nyad gained national attention in 1975 when she swam around Manhattan () in record time. ...

(without shark cage) in 2013. Nyad, who was 64 years old at the time of the attempt, took 52 hours and 54 minutes to cover the between

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Straits Of Florida Bodies of water of Cuba Bodies of water of the Bahamas

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Bahamas–United States border Cuba–United States border Seas of North America Seas of the United States

Oil and gas

Offshore Cuba

Offshore Bahamas

Crossing

See also

References