Mexico Cancels Oil Shipment Bound for Cuba
Thus far no explanation has been given
Pemex’s decision comes amid a US government campaign to completely cut off fuel supplies to the Island.
HAVANA TIMES — Pemex, the Mexican state oil company, has canceled an oil shipment to Cuba scheduled for this month, according to the US outlet Bloomberg. According to the report, released on Monday, the company had planned a shipment for mid-January on the Swift Galaxy, a Panama-flagged vessel, which was due to arrive to Cuba at the end of this month, but it disappeared from the schedule.
Bloomberg reports that it contacted the company and Mexico’s Secretariat of Energy, which did not immediately respond to its inquiry. Likewise, several Mexican media outlets, such as La Jornada and Sipse, have tried to contact Pemex with different results. The former was told “we have no information on the matter,” while the latter says it turned to experts after receiving no comment from the company. “Sources related to the energy sector indicate that the adjustment could be linked to factors such as crude availability, logistical planning, and international market conditions,” they note.
The decision became known almost two weeks after US President Donald Trump stated on social media: “there will be no more oil or money for Cuba: zero.” The message referred to how the regime had benefited from Venezuelan crude, helping ensure its survival, but it raised doubts about whether it applied only to products from PDVSA — now partly under US control — or if it extended to other countries.
A few hours later, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an interview with CBS that the policy would “allow” Mexico to continue sending crude to Cuba. According to Bloomberg’s reporting, it was precisely in those days when the Swift Galaxy was supposed to have been loaded.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also spoke that January 13 with Donald Trump in a phone call during which speculation arose that the situation with Cuba might be addressed, but both sides denied it. “We had a very good conversation with the President of the United States, Donald Trump. We talked about different issues, including security with respect for our sovereignties, the reduction of drug trafficking, trade, and investments,” Sheinbaum said on her social media.
Later, at the morning press conference, Sheinbaum explicitly stated that she did not talk with Trump about Cuba but said she could facilitate negotiations between the two countries. “Obviously, if Mexico were to become a vehicle for communication between the United States and Cuba, then both sides would have to agree, evidently,” she said, hours after the US president had demanded that Havana sit down to negotiate and even claimed that it was already doing so — something the Cuban side denied.
Sheinbaum has since insisted that cooperation with Cuba is historic and would continue, but on Friday Reuters published a report based on statements from three high-level sources who said the Mexican government is assessing whether to maintain, reduce, or suspend crude shipments to the Island for fear of reprisals. “There is a real fear of antagonizing Trump just when Mexico needs negotiating room with Washington,” said one official consulted by the agency. The report coincided with a story in Politico stating that the White House is considering invoking the Helms-Burton Act to “impose a total blockade on oil imports carried out by Cuba.”
Mexican officials also noted a growing presence of US Navy drones over the Gulf of Mexico following routes similar to those taken by tankers transporting Mexican fuel to Cuba. “It’s impossible not to read that as a message,” one of the sources admitted.
The cancellation of the January shipment, in any case, predates those reports — but the context is unambiguous. The last shipment of crude from Pemex that arrived in Cuba was the Ocean Mariner, on January 9, carrying around 85,000 barrels of fuel from Veracruz.
In 2023, exports amounted to about 16,000 bpd of oil and derivatives (worth roughly $300 million). In 2024, cooperation rose to 20,100 bpd — a 20% increase (although derivatives fell 18%) — with a combined estimated value of $600 million.
Between January and September 2025, Mexico supplied the Island — through Pemex’s Gasolinas Bienestar subsidiary — roughly 19,200 barrels per day for Cuba, broken down, according to official documents, into 17,200 of crude and 2,000 of derivatives. University of Texas expert Jorge Piñón estimates that during the first 13 months of the Sheinbaum administration (between October 2024 and November 2025), the average was 8,700 barrels per day.
Pemex is currently Cuba’s largest oil supplier in the absence of Venezuelan crude, as contributions from Russia, Iran, or Algeria have — at least until now — been very limited. Even so, Cuba — which needs at least 110,000 barrels per day and produces only 40,000 of heavy crude suitable only for thermal power plants — is in a severe energy crisis, and blackouts are now beginning to exceed 40 uninterrupted hours in several provinces.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.