HAVANA: The severe fuel shortage in Cuba could see some relief with recent oil shipments arriving from Mexico and Russia. Since the end of March, long queues of cars waiting for gasoline have become a common sight in the Communist Party-ruled island as Cuba faces its worst economic crisis in three decades.
With the country under a US embargo, Cuba produces only a third of its daily fuel requirements, leading to blackouts and food shortages.
According to shipping tracker Vessel Finder, the Mexican tanker Bicentenario, carrying approximately 265,000 barrels of oil, reached the port of Havana on Tuesday. The vessel is currently anchored at the Nico Lopez refinery in the capital, as confirmed by AFP. In late May, the Cameroonian-flagged supertanker Limo, enroute from Russia, arrived at the port of Matanzas with approximately 800,000 barrels of oil.
Vicente de la O Levy, the Minister of Energy and Mines, recently stated that there would be a recovery from fuel shortages and a decrease in the long queues. The arrival of the Bicentenario marks the third such shipment this year, according to Jorge Pinon, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Energy and Environmental Program at the University of Texas. State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos did not provide a comment in response to the shipment.
Mexico, led by leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is pursuing a policy of advocating for an end to US sanctions on Cuba while maintaining a dialogue with Washington and fostering cordial relations in the region, as stated by Arturo Lopez-Levy, a visiting professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid. In recent months, relations between Moscow and Havana have also intensified, with increased bilateral projects and visits by senior officials.
Cuba Faces Challenges to Pay for Oil
However, Cuba faces challenges in paying for the oil. Some countries ship oil to Cuba on credit or in exchange for Cuban doctors providing services in their countries. “Cuba does not have money, and I doubt that it will pay for that oil,” said Pinon. “I assume that Mexico, instead of paying in cash for the shipment of Cuban doctors, is doing it with oil, as Venezuela does.”
Cuba has encountered various fuel difficulties, including a fire at its main fuel storage center in Matanzas and a decrease in shipments from Venezuela, a regional ally. Even with support from allies, the country experiences a daily deficit of at least 20,000 barrels, according to Pinon. The decision by the United States earlier this year to authorize Chevron, an American oil producer, to expand production in sanctioned Venezuela and resume exports of its oil has also affected Cuba.
However, if tensions between the United States and Venezuela ease further, similar to last year’s improvement allowing Chevron to strike a major deal in Venezuela, more oil could be made available for Cuba, suggested Lopez Levy. Delivering the oil to consumers remains another challenge, as Cuban refineries lack the capacity to process untreated Venezuelan crude. As a result, the Cuban government had to resell a shipment from Caracas last month because it could not utilize it.
