The oil tanker Ocean Mariner arrived in Havana Bay with approximately 86,000 barrels of fuel from Mexico to help alleviate the island’s prolonged power outages, the University of Texas Energy Institute confirmed to EFE on Saturday.
The Liberian-flagged vessel arrived in the island’s capital on Friday morning, after departing last month from the Pajaritos complex of the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), located in southern Mexico.
The barrels began being unloaded Saturday morning at the Ñico López refinery in the Havana municipality of Regla, EFE confirmed.
The Ocean Mariner is one of two vessels—along with the Eugenia Gas—that have departed from Mexican territory in recent weeks as part of the fuel shipments Mexico has made to Cuba in recent years. Both ships have arrived at a critical time for the island, which is suffering power outages of 20 hours or more daily across large areas of its territory, and amid doubts about whether Venezuela, following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States, can remain its main oil supplier.
The country has been experiencing a profound energy crisis since mid-2024 due to frequent breakdowns at its aging power plants and the state’s lack of foreign currency to purchase the fuel needed for its generating units.
In just 12 months, the national electrical system has suffered five total blackouts and several partial ones.
The 80,000 barrels sent by Pemex represent slightly more than the island’s daily crude oil deficit. Cuba needs around 110,000 barrels for its basic energy needs, of which about 40,000 come from domestic production.
According to Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), 60 percent of the fuel consumed on the island is imported. Of the total oil the country needs, 65 percent is used to fuel its thermoelectric power plants.
Several independent studies indicate that nearly half of Cuba’s fuel needs are met through crude oil imports from Venezuela, Mexico, and, to a much lesser extent, Russia.
According to an analysis by the Energy Institute and other similar centers, Venezuela had supplied Cuba with around 50,000 barrels per day in recent years, but since 2024 the average volume has dropped to between 10,000 and 30,000 barrels per day. Neither Caracas nor Havana makes this data public.
The U.S. interception of sanctioned oil tankers from the South American country and the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that Washington will have total control over the sale of Venezuelan oil threaten to push Havana to the brink.
In this regard, the U.S. president asserted that the island’s government is “on the verge of collapse” without “Venezuelan oil.” In response, the island’s government assured Cubans that they are “willing” to give their lives.
Source: msn
