It is suspected that the Ñico López has suffered damage caused by a fire in February
14ymedio, Havana/Madrid, April 14, 2026 – Almost two weeks have passed since the Anatoly Kolodkin docked in Matanzas with 750,000 barrels of Russian crude, and the Ñico López refinery in Havana, which is supposed to convert the oil into even more valuable products such as gasoline and diesel, is still not operating. This is revealed by its inactive chimney, visible across the bay from any high point in the city, and about a dozen tanker trucks parked nearby.
When asked about it, Cuban specialist from the University of Texas Jorge Piñón suspects that the plant, located in the municipality of Regla, “is inoperable as a result of a technical problem or lacks reliable and uninterrupted electrical power to operate.” Refineries, he continues, “burn oil for high-temperature heating and steam; however, they depend on electricity to power essential equipment such as pumps, compressors, fans, and automation systems.” Electricity, moreover, “also powers critical safety systems, sensors, and pumps that transport fluids during the refining process.”
He adds that this inability may be due to the fire at the facilities last February 13, whose “damage to logistics,” he says, “has not been repaired.” The large column of black smoke produced at the time, visible from numerous points in Havana, caused alarm among the population, but authorities quickly downplayed the incident, explaining that it occurred in a warehouse containing “an unused additive product” and that it did not spread to other areas, so the flames did not reach the fuel storage tanks.
What is certain is that ship geolocation services have not detected any movement from the port of Matanzas to Havana, which is “only 52 nautical miles away” (just over 96 kilometers), Piñón emphasizes. Also, in Havana’s bay, in front of the refinery, there were only two liquefied gas vessels, the Pastorita and the Emilia. The latter departed on March 12 for Cienfuegos, where it will likely load LPG produced from Russian oil.
Also heading to Cienfuegos since the Anatoly Kolodkin set sail, after unloading the crude it carried on April 4, are two tankers from Matanzas, even though it is much farther away, at 125 nautical miles (more than 230 kilometers). One is the Vilma, under Cuban flag, which, according to Piñón’s data based on its draft, received from the Russian vessel “a ship-to-ship transfer” of 414,000 barrels and arrived at the Cienfuegos refinery on April 8.
The other is the Nicos I.V. – under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines- which, the University of Texas expert estimates, carries 227,000 barrels of Urals crude and is currently located off Cape San Antonio, in Pinar del Río. The remaining 109,000 barrels needed to complete the 750,000 brought by the Anatoly Kolodkin may be aboard some of the other Cuban tankers moored in Matanzas: the María Cristina, the Lourdes, and the Alicia.
The problem with the Cienfuegos refinery, Piñón points out, is that it “does not have a vacuum tower or a catalytic cracking unit like the Havana refinery” and, therefore, is more likely to produce lower-quality fuel oil used for distributed generation engines and less of “high-value products such as gasoline and diesel.” The expert notes that the coastal vessel Prímula has been docked in Cienfuegos for two days, right after the Vilma departed, and speculates that it is “ready to transport refined products as soon as possible from the Cienfuegos refinery to a Cuban oil port yet to be determined.”
Meanwhile, maritime tracking agencies show the Russian tanker Universal, which is sanctioned by the United States and the European Union, like the Anatoly Kolodkin, loaded with 320,000 barrels of fuel and coming from the Baltic port of Vysotsk in the North Atlantic, is bound for Cuba. Its expected arrival date is April 23.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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