Mexico sends 85 thousand barrels of oil to Cuba

Mexico.- An oil tanker arrived this Friday in Havana loaded with 85,000 barrels of crude oil from Mexico, a country that supplies hydrocarbons to Cuba, in the context of the crisis in Venezuela. The tanker Ocean Mariner left on January 5 from the Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) terminal, located in Pajaritos in the port of Coatzacoalcos (east), bound for the Ñico López refinery in Havana, Jorge Piñón, a researcher at the University of Texas, told AFP. President Claudia Sheinbaum admitted this week that given the crisis facing Venezuela, “obviously Mexico becomes an important provider” for the communist island. The president responded in her usual conference to a question about a report in the British newspaper Financial Times that revealed that in 2025, Mexican oil shipments to Cuba surpassed those of Venezuela.

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The president said that these deliveries are made under contracts or a “humanitarian aid” scheme, but her government has not made these agreements public, nor the way in which Havana pays for the crude oil. The arrival of the Ocean Mariner in Cuba occurs in a context of extreme tension due to the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and the control that the United States has taken over Venezuelan oil, which until a few months ago was the main supplier of crude oil for Cuba.