Mexican oil tanker Bicentenario is seen at the Ñico López oil refinery in Havana on June 8, 2023 (AFP/YAMIL LAGE)
With recent oil deliveries from Mexico and Russia, and the commercial rapprochement between Venezuela and the United States, Cuba, plunged into a deep crisis, could alleviate its serious shortage of fuel.
Since the end of March, the queues of cars at the entrance to service stations have been part of the daily landscape of the communist island.
Under US embargo since 1962, Cuba, which produces only a third of the fuel it consumes every day, is going through its worst economic crisis in three decades with recurring power outages and food shortages.
But recent oil deliveries could improve the situation. The Mexican tanker Bicentenario, whose cargo is estimated at 265,000 barrels, docked at the port of Havana on Tuesday, according to the Vessel Finder maritime monitoring site. On Thursday, it was moored at the Ñico Lopez refinery in the capital, AFP noted.
At the end of May, the supertanker Limo, flying the Cameroonian flag and coming from Russia, arrived at the port of Matanzas, about a hundred kilometers east of Havana, with an estimated cargo of 800,000 barrels.
The supply of oil could “return to an acceptable level”, estimates Jorge Piñon, specialist in energy policy at the University of Texas, in the United States.
A man refuels on a street in Havana on May 31, 2023 (AFP/YAMIL LAGE)
With a processing capacity of 22,000 barrels per day by the Havana refinery, the capital can be supplied for up to three weeks, estimates the expert.
– “No money” –
This is the third delivery of oil since the beginning of the year from the Bicentenario ship sent by the government of left-wing president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, underlines Mr. Piñón. The public company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) could not be reached immediately to answer questions from AFP.
Mexico, which wants to play a leading role in the region, is asking for the lifting of the American embargo against Cuba, while maintaining dialogue with the United States, underlines the Cuban analyst and visiting professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid Arturo Lopez-Levy.
Mexican oil and chemical tanker Bicentenario is seen at the Ñico López oil refinery in Havana on June 8, 2023 (AFP/YAMIL LAGE)
As for relations between Havana and Moscow, they have intensified in recent months with ambitious projects in different sectors and the multiplication of visits by senior officials to each of the two countries.
“Cuba has no money and I doubt that the country pays for this oil. I guess that Mexico, instead of paying in cash for sending Cuban doctors, does it with oil”, underlines Mr. Piñon , for which Russia was able to reactivate sales to Cuba on credit. Mexico will look for doctors on the communist island because of the lack in the country of general practitioners but also of specialists.
– Chevron versus Cuba –
In 2022, Cuba had to deal with a fire at its main fuel storage center in the province of Matanzas, as well as a reduction in deliveries from Venezuela, its main regional ally.
The island produces about 40,000 barrels a day, but needs an additional 100,000 barrels to meet demand, Piñón says. The difference is partially covered by its partners, with a deficit of at least 20,000 barrels, he estimates.
Cuban refineries do not have the capacity to process heavy Venezuelan crude, so Havana had to resell a shipment from Caracas in May, he adds.
In this photo taken on April 24, 2023, drivers line up for fuel near a gas station in Havana (AFP/YAMIL LAGE)
This supply is all the more complicated since now the American energy giant Chevron “can transport 100,000 barrels of oil per day from Venezuela to the United States”, recalls Mr. Piñón.
Washington, whose relations have been broken with Venezuela since 2019, relaxed its sanctions against Caracas in November, notably allowing Chevron to operate in the Latin American country.
From now on “it is more important for PDVSA (the Venezuelan oil company) to deliver this volume to Chevron”, adds the expert.
Arturo Lopez-Levy believes, however, that “if Venezuela emerges from its quarrel with the United States and its isolation, the gold mine will work again”, indirectly favoring Cuba, which would also receive part of this increase in production.
© 2023 AFP
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