Cuba's hopes of becoming a regional oil powerhouse are still at the starting line more than four years after US firms identified large potential reserves in the country's territorial waters.

The Associated Press reports that the country has been unable to develop its resources internally because it lacks the technology and training capacity to do so, while longstanding trade sanctions have choked any hopes of calling for outside help.

Its hopes of developing deepwater fields have also been hurt by the plummeting oil price and the subdued demand for crude precipitated by the global economic crisis, with many companies in the oil and gas industry looking to pull back on expensive exploration projects.

Experts predict that the 59 deep sea blocks off the Cuban costs would each need to yield around 10,000 barrels a day at $60 a day to be profitable.

"That's pretty pricey if you're not sure of your financing or the longevity of the current government," said Eric Smith, of the Entergy-Tulane Energy Institute at Tulane University in New Orleans.

In October, the Cuban government estimated that the country may be sitting on 20 billion barrels of oil.

5th Global Education and Training event for Oil and Gas: Exploration and Production