BLACK HORIZON
(SWYTECK NO. 11)
Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck is back in an uphill legal battle and a looming geopolitical crisis. Just three years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, once again millions of gallons of oil are spewing from a hole in the ocean floor after a deadly explosion aboard a massive rig. Only this time, the circumstances are even more nightmarish. The rig was in Cuban waters, just sixty miles from Key West, and the biggest manmade environmental catastrophe in history is headed not toward Havana, but straight for the U.S. coastline. The Cuban navy threatens to fire upon American cleanup equipment as “hostile invaders,” a threat that is backed by the Chinese, Russian and Venezuelan consortium that may have caused the disaster. Jack wants only justice for his client, a young Cuban widow whose husband was killed in the explosion, but his search for the real cause of the explosion puts him and his client at unfathomable risk with global repercussions.
Has the battle between Big Oil and environmental extremists reached a catastrophic fever pitch? Has the Cuban regime finally found the ultimate leverage against its capitalist neighbor? Is this an even broader political showdown on the world stage in which America’s most powerful adversaries—China and Russia—intend to bring the White House to its knees? Jack is caught in the crosshairs of ruthless adversaries with a high-stakes agenda, pressured even by his own government to drop the case for the sake of national security. Fighting for much more than his client’s rights in a Key West courtroom, Jack plunges through a maze of international intrigue to find that the “accident” was indeed no accident—and that the force behind this raging disaster is an act of desperation more shocking than anyone could have imagined.
Critical Praise
“Bestseller Grippando draws inspiration from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill for his fantastic 11th Jack Swyteck novel … Finely crafted dialogue and a realistic yet nuanced hero make this thriller a standout.”
- Publishers’ Weekly (starred review)
"Revisits the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and then does it one better ... Grippando's fun legal thriller offers a breezy tour of the policies that shape life in South Florida and its Caribbean neighbors."
- ABC News
“A fun read [that] plunges head on into a web of international intrigue … one of Grippando's most timely books. … Grippando has fashioned a tight plot and lets it play out in places such as the Bahamas, Havana and the Florida Keys. Under the hot summer sun tempers flare and diabolical plots are hatched, and that's the way we like them.”
- Huffington Post
"Perhaps the most successful of Jack's 11 cases ... fast moving ... irresistible ... readers will be immersed in the rewardingly complex tangle of legal/political problems."
- Kirkus Reviews
"Intriguing … Grippando has become a master at taking "ripped from the headlines" events, in this case the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, and turning them into involving thrillers that, somehow, do not succumb to sensationalism. Grippando achieves this by continuing to focus on characters, especially showing new sides of Jack. Crisp dialogue and an insider's view of Florida elevate "Black Horizon," as do the evocative scenes set in Cuba."
- Miami Herald
"Black Horizon is timely, relentlessly paced and a thrill ride of the first order."
- BookPage
Behind the book
James Grippando’s “Black Horizon” and Drilling for Oil in Cuban Waters:
Ripped from Tomorrow’s Headline
“Cuba will drill for oil in its territorial waters with or without the blessing of the United States. … Without taking [necessary] precautions, the United States risks a second Deepwater Horizon, this time from Cuba.”
- Captain Melissa Bert, USCG, “Policy Memorandum No. 15,” Council for Foreign Relations
Ten minutes after my appearance on Morning Joe aired on January 7, 2013, I received an e-mail from Gwen Keenan, Director, Office of Emergency Response, Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The final question Joe Scarborough had asked me in the TV interview was “What’s next?” I told him that Cuba was drilling for oil just fifty miles from the Florida coast, and Black Horizon was the story of what could happen if a drilling disaster of the magnitude of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill happened in Cuban Waters.
“You are writing about the U.S. Coast Guard’s worst nightmare,” Kennan said in her e-mail to me.
Keenan has studied the Cuba drilling issue in depth since 2010. We later met in Miami, and she made a point of sharing with me a policy memorandum from the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent “think tank” whose members include Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, NBC’s Brian Williams, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, and others. Keenan regards it as “one of the more constructive, insightful” summaries of how serious the Cuban oil threat is:
“A Chinese-built semisubmersible oil rig leased by Repsol, a Spanish oil company, arrived in Cuban waters in January 2012 to drill Cuba's first exploratory offshore oil well. … [A] surge in Cuban oil production would complicate the United States' decades-old effort to economically isolate the Castro regime. Deepwater drilling off the Cuban coast also poses a threat to the United States. The exploratory well is seventy miles off the Florida coast and lies at a depth of 5,800 feet. The failed Macondo well that triggered the calamitous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010 had broadly similar features, situated forty-eight miles from shore and approximately five thousand feet below sea level. A spill off Florida's coast could ravage the state's $57 billion per year tourism industry.
“Washington cannot count on the technical know-how of Cuba's unseasoned oil industry to address a spill on its own. Oil industry experts doubt that it has a strong understanding of how to prevent an offshore oil spill or stem a deep-water well blowout. Moreover, the site where the first wells will be drilled is a tough one for even seasoned response teams to operate in. Unlike the calm Gulf of Mexico, the surface currents in the [Cuban waters] move at a brisk three to four knots, which would bring oil from Cuba's offshore wells to the Florida coast within six to ten days. Skimming or burning the oil may not be feasible in such fast-moving water. The most, and possibly only, effective method to respond to a spill would be surface and subsurface dispersants. If dispersants are not applied close to the source within four days after a spill, uncontained oil cannot be dispersed, burnt, or skimmed, which would render standard response technologies like containment booms ineffective.
“Repsol has been forthcoming in disclosing its spill response plans to U.S. authorities and allowing them to inspect the drilling rig, but the Russian and Chinese companies that are already negotiating with Cuba to lease acreage might not be as cooperative. Had Repsol not volunteered to have the Cuba-bound drilling rig examined by the U.S. Coast Guard and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to certify that it met international standards, Washington would have had little legal recourse.
“The complexity of U.S.-Cuba relations since the 1962 trade embargo complicates even limited efforts to put in place a spill response plan. Under U.S. law and with few exceptions, American companies cannot assist the Cuban government or provide equipment to foreign companies operating in Cuban territory.
“Shortfalls in U.S. federal regulations governing commercial liability for oil spills pose a further problem. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) does not protect U.S. citizens and property against damages stemming from a blown-out wellhead outside of U.S. territory. … Were any of the wells that [Cuba] drills to go haywire, the cost of funding a response would fall to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF), which is woefully undercapitalized.
“… An oil well blowout in Cuban waters would almost certainly require a U.S. response. Without changes in current U.S. law, however, that response would undoubtedly come far more slowly than is desirable. The Coast Guard would be barred from deploying highly experienced manpower, specially designed booms, skimming equipment and vessels, and dispersants. U.S. offshore gas and oil companies would also be barred from using well-capping stacks, remotely operated submersibles, and other vital technologies. Although a handful of U.S. spill responders hold licenses to work with [Cuba], their licenses do not extend to well capping or relief drilling. The result of a slow response to a Cuban oil spill would be greater, perhaps catastrophic, economic and environmental damage to Florida and the Southeast.”
Council on Foreign Relations, Policy Innovation Memorandum No. 15 (addressing the Risk of a Cuban Oil Spill). Authors: Captain Melissa Bert, USCG, Military Fellow, U.S. Coast Guard and Blake Clayton, Fellow for Energy and National Security
Industry Experts Are in Agreement about the Danger:
"This is a case of Cold War ideology colliding with 21st-century environmental policy, and it is the environment that is at risk."
- Lee Hunt, President, International Association of Drilling Contractors
“The need to plan a detailed response for a possible spill in Cuban waters … is being driven by memories of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. … ‘Now imagine something like that happening in the waters between two countries that don't even talk to each other," said Jorge Piñon, a former president of Amoco Oil Latin America and now a research fellow at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas. ‘The U.S. Coast Guard is terrified.’”
- Washington Post, “Cuba drills for oil, but U.S. unprepared for spill” (March 1, 2012)
"There is no point in opposing drilling in Cuba. They are drilling. And so now we should be working together to prevent disaster."
Daniel Whittle, Cuba program director of the Environmental Defense Fund.
The U.S. Government is Fully Aware of the Danger:
“Drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico is not solely a matter for U.S. consideration. …Cuba, through both the Spanish company Repsol and the large Russian oil and gas production company Gazprom, in which the Russian government maintains a controlling stake, have either actually drilled exploratory and production wells or are likely soon to do so. Potential drilling sites are close enough to waters and land within U.S. jurisdiction—Cuba’s mainland lies only 90 miles from Florida’s coast and the contemplated wells only 50 miles—that if an accident like the Deepwater Horizon spill occurs, fisheries, coastal tourism, and other valuable U.S. natural resources could be put at great risk.”
- Report to the President, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling (January 2011)
“Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA), Venezuela’s state-owned national oil company (NOC), is helping Unión Cuba Petróleo (Cupet), Cuba’s NOC, to expand and upgrade Cuba’s refining capacity. Their Cuvenpetrol joint venture [is] pursing further expansion there with the assistance of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Chinese lenders.”
- Congressional Research Service Report to Congress (November 2011)
“Cuba is moving toward development of its offshore oil resources. … [T]he U.S. Geological Survey estimates that offshore reserves in the North Cuba Basin could contain an additional 4.6 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable crude oil. At present, Cuba has six offshore projects with foreign oil companies. … In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, some Members of Congress and others have expressed concern about Cuba’s development of its deep water petroleum reserves so close to the United States. They are concerned about oil spill risks and about the status of preparedness and coordination in the event of an oil spill. Dealing with these challenges is made more difficult because of the long-standing poor state of relations between Cuba and the United States. If an oil spill did occur in the waters northwest of Cuba, currents in the Florida Straits could carry the oil to U.S. waters and coastal areas in Florida …. [M]arine and coastal resources in southern Florida could be at risk.”
- Congressional Research Service Report to Congress (November 2011)
"With a deep water platform in place, Cuba is moving forward with its plans to drill for oil 56 miles from the Florida Keys. It is important that the United States is prepared in the event of a spill or disaster… from Cuban and Bahamian drilling. Both countries off Florida's coast plan deep water drilling at depths greater than the BP Gulf well."
- U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-FL), Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Hearing on “Offshore drilling in Cuba and the Bahamas: the U.S. Coast Guard's readiness and response planning” spills) (Jan. 30, 2012)
