The incident occurred during maintenance work: “The sulfur and the residue in some of its columns caught fire.”
14ymedio, Havana, September 14, 2026 – Sources connected to the operations of the Matanzas Supertanker Base confirmed to 14ymedio that “there was indeed a fire” last Friday in tank Tk 28, during maintenance work, despite the Ministry of Energy and Mines and Unión Cuba-Petróleo (Cupet) denying that the incident had occurred.
“The tank was open; you could walk inside the tank. It was clean, so to speak, but there are places where deposits remain, heavy petroleum materials, sulfur. It caught fire from the welding they were doing,” said a source who asked to remain anonymous and added that the tank had been prepared with water to eliminate the gases before the work began.
The tank, classified as Tk 28, had stored crude oil and was “completely empty,” specified a second source, more directly connected to the UEB Territorial Division for Fuel Marketing in Matanzas, the official name of the Base. During the maintenance work, “the sulfur and the residue in some of its columns caught fire,” he stated.
The second source likewise played down the seriousness of the episode: “There is nothing to worry about”
The incident did not get out of control or leave any victims. “It was a minor problem,” explained the first source. Even so, because it is a sensitive facility, it prompted a significant mobilization in the city: “A whole bunch of fire trucks and ambulances went over there.” The second source likewise played down the seriousness of the episode: “There is nothing to worry about.”
According to the first testimony, these tanks generally receive crude oil from the Varadero pipelines and from the areas of Puerto Escondido and Santa Cruz, as well as from the western and central pipelines.
The accounts coincide with the information initially published by the official newspaper Girón, which reported an “accident that caused a fire” during maintenance of an empty tank. The fire was brought under control by firefighters, Ministry of the Interior forces and other agencies, and there was no danger of it spreading. The information was reproduced by the Provincial Government of Matanzas.
One day later, the Ministry of Energy and Mines stated that “there was no such fire” and attributed the smoke to sulfur accumulated in the tank. For its part, it stated that “there was no such fire,” although it acknowledged that “during maintenance activities in the tank, which contained no product inside, sulfur accumulated on the surface generated smoke, which was quickly brought under control.”
The denial prompted a protest from Raúl Navarro, photojournalist and director of Audiovisuals at Girón. “It is very easy, with a simple publication, to destroy the work of an entire team,” he reproached Minem on Facebook. He accused the agency of “minimizing the problem” and of putting his colleagues “in a difficult position as liars.” “I demand an apology to our team,” he demanded. The publication is no longer available.
Navarro also questioned the official technical explanation. “Sulfur in contact with welding work (or any source of ignition) will cause a fire, not just smoke,” he wrote.
The episode occurred at a facility still marked by the great fire of August 2022, which left 17 people dead, more than 100 injured and destroyed four of its eight large storage tanks. The loss forced the construction of four new tanks to restore the destroyed capacity. The Cuban side took responsibility for one of them, while Chinese entities were responsible for the other three.
Just a month ago, the structures were already standing, but the sources now consulted by 14ymedio confirm that they cannot operate because they have still not been connected to the rest of the facility: “You can put in fuel, but you have no way of getting it to the tank with a pipeline.”
“The pipelines are missing, the fire protection system installation is missing, and two storage tanks that are larger than the existing ones for firefighting foam and water still need to be built,” the source detailed. The interconnections were supposed to be carried out by Chinese workers, but they “took off,” he added. Although he said he did not know the reason for their departure, he mentioned the possibility of some “payment problem.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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