Mexico Breaks Its Record on Sending Oil to Cuba

US $850 million worth of oil in a single month

Despite it all, the Cuban population continues to suffer endless blackouts.

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES – The Mexican press woke up this Saturday with sensational headlines questioning the management of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Between May 29 and June 27, 2025, the company carried out 39 export operations aboard 20 ships bound for Cuba, which included 10.2 million barrels of crude oil and 132.5 million liters of refined products (jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline). And yet, Cubans continue to suffer interminable blackouts: this Saturday, the forecast from the Union Electrica state company predicts a deficit of 1,675 megawatts during peak hours.  This translates into long blackouts throughout the country, much longer outside the capital Havana.

These products, valued at $850 million, were sent through Gasolinas Bienestar S.A., the Pemex subsidiary created—among other “solidarity” objectives—to export fuel to the Island. The shipments even included jet fuel, the aviation fuel that Havana had been hoping to receive since last December, when flights at the capital’s airport were canceled for several hours due to shortages.

Mexico has even managed to replace Venezuela in terms of the volume of fuel sent to the Island. In June, Caracas sent barely 8,000 barrels per day (bpd), instead of the 50,000 monthly average of previous years, although in July it increased its exports to 31,000 bpd. In contrast, Mexico delivered to Cuba in June 333,000 bpd of crude oil alone, in addition to refined fuels.

The amount almost equals the value of the oil Pemex sent to Cuba over more than a year, between July 2023 and September 2024: nearly $1 billion. Shipments have continued since June, with the Ocean Mariner—scheduled to arrive in Cienfuegos today, August 17—and with the Sandino, currently loading crude at the Mexican port of Pajaritos-Coatzacoalcos, in Veracruz state, where it arrived on June 28.

Of all the 2025 shipments, 19 left from Coatzacoalcos and one from Tampico, in Tamaulipas, carrying 6.8 million liters of diesel. The importing company was Coreydan S.A., a Cuban state enterprise about which little is known, but which in 2023 imported hydrocarbons from Gasolinas Bienestar worth $60 million between July and an unspecified later date, according to Bloomberg. According to the Mexican press, the state enterprise shares headquarters in Havana with Unión Cuba-Petróleo (Cupet), at 552 Amistad Street, in Central Havana. 14ymedio confirmed at the site that no resident of the building had ever heard of Coreydan.

From May to June this year, all shipments list Coreydan as the importing company, except one, dated June 19, which involved 8 million liters of regular gasoline ordered by Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs.

At 552 Amistad Street in Havana, Cupet and Coreydan, the state enterprise importing Mexican oil, share offices. / 14ymedio

Other ships involved in the crude oil transfers between Mexico and the Island include the Ocean Mariner, which arrived in Havana in July with 13,000 tons (approximately 91,000 barrels) of fuel from the Ciudad Madero refinery, after having made at least two previous trips earlier in the year. The tanker is scheduled to arrive this Sunday at the port of Cienfuegos.

In previous years, Mexican media reports, there were also frequent trips by the Bicentenario, owned by Pemex Logística, which made four visits to Havana and one to Matanzas in 2023. Added to this were Cuban vessels such as the Delsa (eight trips), the Esperanza (six trips), and the Vilma (17 trips) between 2023 and 2024, all departing from the Coatzacoalcos-Pajaritos terminal.

In a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024, Pemex had already acknowledged that since July 2023 its subsidiary Gasolinas Bienestar S.A. had acquired crude and petroleum products from its own companies in order to export them to Cuba. In that same report, the company declared that it had exported products worth $400 million between July and December 2023 and another $600 million in 2024.

As for 2025, in the first quarter Mexico sent the Island 19,600 barrels of oil per day (bpd), worth more than $166 million, according to Gasolinas Bienestar S.A.’s own reports. Although data for April and May are lacking, it is already a fact that the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum has delivered more than $1 billion in oil and derivatives to its Cuban ally.

However, this massive support has not come at no cost for Mexico. On February 25, the association Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity revealed that Pemex has fallen further into debt as a result of these shipments, which were subsidized at least until the final years of Manuel Andrés Lopez Obrador’s administration (2018–2024). It is currently unknown whether Havana pays anything for these deliveries, whether it is a barter arrangement in exchange for services (though Cuba already receives very high payments for its medical missions), or whether it is simply a donation from Mexico.

This past July, the Employers Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) warned that Pemex’s accumulated debt with its suppliers, mostly small and medium-sized businesses, threatens thousands of enterprises across the country, especially in key regions of the energy sector.

According to a statement from the organization, which represents more than 36,000 companies responsible for 30% of national GDP, although Pemex reduced its debt with suppliers by 20% at the close of the first quarter of the year—bringing it to around $20.2 billion—the amount remains “of unsustainable proportions.”

Mexico is also not in a position to export such large amounts of crude, local media criticized this Saturday. With headlines like Pemex Prioritizes Cuba over Mexico amid Gasoline Shortages; Gasoline is Scarce… and Cuba Enjoys Pemex; or While Mexico Faces Gasoline Shortages, Pemex Sends Million-Dollar Shipments to Cuba, the press denounced that in Mexico City, State of Mexico, Nuevo León, and Chiapas there have been reports of fuel supply problems.

First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.

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