Russia has decided to challenge Washington’s oil blockade of Cuba. Moscow has sent a ship with up to 200,000 barrels of diesel to the island, which has not received a single drop of fuel since January, as EL PAÍS was able to confirm this Wednesday. The Sea Horse tanker is heading to the western coast of the Caribbean country and would arrive between the weekend and Monday. Shipping is no small matter. This is the type of fuel that Havana uses to supply the generator sets that it has scattered throughout its territory and that account for 40% of the energy mix. It is also used for transportation and agriculture, practically stopped by the United States siege.
The ship is 1,146 nautical miles (2,122 kilometers) off the northern coast of Cuba at a speed of 9.9 knots (18.3 kilometers per hour), according to the naval monitoring tool Vessel Finder. The Hong Kong-flagged ship resumed its course towards the island, according to Marine Traffic tracking data, after three weeks of being detained in the Atlantic.
Different international media have reported that the Anatoly Kolodkin ship, loaded with 700,000 barrels of crude oil, left the Russian coast of Primorsk and would be en route to the island. However, maritime data place it just leaving Europe and off the trajectory towards Cuba. This is a ship sanctioned by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
To raise tension amid the United States’ energy and tariff blockade, which has cut hydrocarbon shipments to the socialist country, two US-flagged vessels, one of them identified as part of the Coast Guard (USCGC), were near the coast of Holguín (east), according to the tracker.
According to calculations by Jorge Piñón, a researcher at the University of Texas Energy Institute, the diesel sent by Russia will only be able to satisfy national consumption for 10 days. But he also made a nuance: “We must remember that the inventories are empty.” In an interview with EL PAÍS in mid-February, the expert warned that “if a tanker did not enter Cuba by March,” the island would reach “zero hour.” The last oil tanker that docked on island coasts was the Ocean Mariner last January with 86,000 barrels of fuel exported by Mexico.
Cuba has received very small shipments. According to the monitoring of Reuters, Two low-capacity vessels have entered its coasts so far this year. One from Mexico, loaded with fuel and unloaded in Havana. The second, from Jamaica, with domestic gas. Conditioned by the asphyxiation imposed by Washington, the Cuban Government legalized small private companies to import their own fuel. The firms would have begun receiving fuel since mid-February, according to the agency. Efe.
A balm for blackouts
“Diesel is the number one product, the most important, that not only Cuba, but any developing country needs. I think that they [el Gobierno] They are going to use it in the sectors that urgently need it. This is pure speculation, but I think they are going to supply the generator sets to improve the problem of blackouts,” says Piñón in a telephone interview.
The shipment of the Sea Horse is Russia’s biggest gesture towards the island since the United States threatened at the end of January to impose tariffs on countries that supply fuel to Havana. In a statement on Tuesday, the Moscow Foreign Ministry charged against Washington for the “recent pressure” against the “island of freedom,” in reference to recent statements by Donald Trump. The American president threatened on Monday to “take over” the country.
Cuba has historically depended on imported oil to cover its daily energy needs. The Caribbean country can only satisfy one third of its national demand by itself. The island’s chronic electricity crisis has been exacerbated in recent weeks, fueled by the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and the US tariff threat.
The country is still recovering slowly from the fall of its National Electroenergy System (SEN) on Monday. It was the sixth collapse in the last 18 months. The state company reported this Wednesday morning that, at the time of greatest demand, about half of Cuba will remain turned off due to the generation deficit.
