Caracas once sent the Island as much as 157,000 barrels a day, three times the amount agreed upon with Hugo Chávez in 2000.
14ymedio, Madrid, October 10, 2026 – Venezuelan economists estimate that Cuba’s debt to Venezuela amounts to more than $20 billion, stemming from the well-known Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement, which lasted 25 years and established the supply of Venezuelan oil in exchange for technical, medical, and sports services provided by the Cuban Government.
Unlike a previous report published by the Miranda Center for Democracy, which puts the value of the oil sent by Caracas at $44.5 billion, the experts cited by Televen TV focus on Havana’s debt.
Oil economist Rafael Quiroz Serrano, interviewed by the Venezuelan outlet, stated that the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) sometimes sent as much as 157,000 barrels per day (bpd) to Cuba.
The expert confirmed that Venezuelan supplies came to far exceed the Island’s consumption and processing capacity. Cuba’s daily consumption under normal conditions is 110,000 barrels, of which 40,000 come from domestic crude oil. “It was later discovered that many of those barrels of [Venezuelan] oil were being resold on the international market,” Quiroz Serrano maintained.
“It was later discovered that many of those barrels of oil were being resold on the international market”
The Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement between Cuba and Venezuela, negotiated by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro in 2000, initially established shipments of 53,000 bpd of oil and petroleum products. The agreement provided for a 15-year repayment period, the possibility of financing between 5% and 25% of the invoice, and a preferential interest rate of 2%. In exchange, Cuba would provide healthcare personnel, doctors, and technical assistance for social and agricultural programs, among other services.
Between 2005 and 2012, Venezuelan shipments averaged around 105,000 bpd, according to a report by the Miranda Center for Democracy, a U.S. organization sponsored by the Republican Party. Beginning in 2013, as Venezuelan production declined, the figures fell. During those years, the figures reported in the study reached averages of 69,000 bpd in 2016 and 55,000 in 2017.
By 2023, Reuters was reporting approximately 56,000 bpd, and in 2024, 32,000. Quiroz Serrano notes in the Televen report that by 2025, only around 30,000 bpd were being shipped, and that shipments were halted beginning January 31 of this year, after Trump signed an order imposing tariffs on countries supplying oil to Cuba.
Cuba’s debt remains outstanding, but the exact amount of those unpaid obligations is impossible to calculate because of the nature of the agreement. Economist and former Pdvsa executive José Toro Hardy points out: “It is difficult to estimate the figure because everything was shrouded in secrecy, but I estimate that Cuba’s debt to Venezuela must have been in the range of $25 billion. They never paid anything, and I doubt they will pay now.”
“It is difficult to estimate the figure because everything was shrouded in secrecy, but I estimate that Cuba’s debt to Venezuela must have been in the range of $25 billion”
Specialist Quiroz Serrano explains the difficulty of calculating the debt: “For accounting purposes, it was impossible for Pdvsa, because they could not figure out how to determine the salaries of the sports coaches, educators, doctors, and nurses.”
The agreement was criticized from the outset by Venezuelan economists, who considered it “a bad deal.” Former Pdvsa executive Toro Hardy went before the Supreme Court of Justice at the time in an attempt to stop it, arguing that it first had to be approved by the National Assembly, but his appeal was dismissed. “That was an entirely political program; the objective was to subsidize Cuba by any means necessary,” Toro Hardy now points out.
The report prepared by the Miranda Center for Democracy estimated that since 2000, Venezuela had transferred to Cuba an amount of oil valued at $44.5 billion in current dollars, $63.8 billion in inflation-adjusted value. As early as 2016, however, Nicolás Maduro put Venezuela’s “investment” in the exchange at around $250 billion, a very likely exaggeration.
The Televen report now argues that the resources Venezuela failed to collect contributed to the country’s declining GDP and to deficits that worsened its crisis. As examples, it mentions that stabilizing the national electricity system would have required between $9 billion and $15 billion, while restoring the drinking water network would have cost $3.3 billion.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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