Mike Martinez, president of Mexico-based oil engineering firm Bay-Inelectra, suggested that Cuba could offer the US a viable oil source amid instability in the Middle East and elsewhere.
"Now we're dealing with a lot more unstable places, like Nigeria and Venezuela with [President Hugo] Chavez," said Martinez, whose family fled Cuba in the 1960s.
The meeting was sponsored by the US-Cuba Trade Association; Texas-based Valero, the biggest US oil refiner; the Louisiana Department of Economic Development; and the Texas Port of Corpus Christi, among others.



