Despite everything, the population continues to suffer from endless power cuts.
14ymedio, Havana, 16 August 2025 (delayed translation) — The Mexican press woke up on Saturday to inflammatory headlines questioning the management of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Between 29 May and 27 June 2025, the company carried out 39 export operations aboard 20 ships bound for Cuba, including 10.2 million barrels of crude oil and 132.5 million litres of refined products (jet fuel, diesel and petrol). And yet Cubans continue to suffer endless blackouts: this Saturday, the Unión Eléctrica forecasts a deficit of 1,675 megawatts during peak hours.
These products, valued at $850 million, were shipped through Gasolinas Bienestar S.A., the Pemex subsidiary created, among other “solidarity” objectives, to export fuel to the island. These deliveries even included jet fuel, which Havana was all but begging for, last December when flights had to be cancelled for several hours at the capital’s airport.
Mexico has even replaced Venezuela in terms of the amount of fuel sent to the island. In June, Caracas sent just 8,000 barrels per day (bpd), instead of the monthly average of 50,000 bpd in previous years, although in July it increased its exports to 31,000 bpd. In contrast, Mexico delivered 333,000 bpd of crude oil alone to Cuba in June, in addition to fuel.
The amount is almost equal to the value of the oil that Pemex sent to Cuba over more than a year, between July 2023 and September 2024: nearly $1 billion. Deliveries have continued since last June, with the Ocean Mariner, scheduled to arrive in Cienfuegos tomorrow, 17 August, and the Sandino, which is currently loading crude oil in the Mexican port of Pajaritos-Coatzacoalcos, in the state of Veracruz, where it arrived on 28 June.
Of the total shipments in 2025, 19 departed from Coatzacoalcos and one from Tampico, in Tamaulipas, with 6.8 million litres of diesel. The importing company was Coreydan S.A., a Cuban state-owned company about which little is known, but which in 2023 imported hydrocarbons from Gasolinas Bienestar worth $60 million between July and another unknown date, according to Bloomberg. According to the Mexican press, the state-owned company shares its headquarters in Havana with Unión Cuba-Petróleo (Cupet), at 552 Amistad Street, in Centro Habana. 14ymedio was able to verify on site that no neighbour in the building had heard of Coreydan.
Of the shipments from May to June this year, all but one are registered as having been imported by Coreydan, with the exception of one dated 19 June, in which 8 million litres of regular petrol were shipped on behalf of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Other vessels involved in transporting crude oil between Mexico and the island include the Ocean Mariner, which arrived in Havana in July with 13,000 tonnes (approximately 91,000 barrels) of fuel from the Ciudad Madero refinery, after having made at least two previous trips during the year. The tanker is scheduled to arrive at the port of Cienfuegos on Sunday.
In previous years, according to Mexican media reports, there have also been frequent trips by the Bicentenario, owned by Pemex Logística, which made four visits to Havana and one to Matanzas in 2023. In addition, Cuban vessels such as the Delsa (eight trips), the Esperanza (six trips) and the Vilma (17 trips) made trips between 2023 and 2024, all 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 been purchasing crude oil and petroleum products from its own companies for export to Cuba. In that same report, the company stated 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 19,600 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to the island, worth more than $166 million, according to Gasolinas Bienestar S.A.’s own reports. In the absence of data for April and May, it is already a fact that Claudia Sheinbaum’s government has delivered more than $1 billion in oil and derivatives to its Cuban ally.
However, this million-dollar support has not been free for Mexico. On 25 February, the association Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) revealed that Pemex has become even more indebted as a result of these shipments, which were subsidised at least until the last years of Manuel Andrés López Obrador’s term in office (2018-2024). It is currently unknown whether Havana pays anything for these deliveries, whether it is a barter in exchange for services (although Cuba already receives a very high payment for its health missions) or whether it is a donation from Mexico.
Pemex has become even more indebted as a result of these shipments, which were subsidised at least until the final years of Manuel Andrés López Obrador’s term in office.
Last July, the Mexican Employers’ Confederation (Coparmex) warned that Pemex’s accumulated debt to its suppliers, mostly SMEs, threatens thousands of businesses across the country, especially in key regions of the energy sector.
According to a statement from the organisation, which represents more than 36,000 companies responsible for 30% of the national gross domestic product (GDP), although Pemex reduced its debt to suppliers by 20% at the end of the first quarter of the year – placing it at around $20.2 billion – the amount remains “unsustainable”.
Mexico is also unable to export such large quantities of crude oil, local media criticised on Saturday. With headlines such as “Pemex prioritises Cuba over Mexico in petrol shortage”; “Petrol shortages… and Cuba benefits from Pemex”; and “While Mexico suffers petrol shortages, Pemex sends million-dollar shipments to Cuba”, the press reported that petrol supply problems have been reported in Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Nuevo León and Chiapas.
14ymedio note: The data provided by the Mcci is the result of an erroneous interpretation of Mexican Customs statistics.
Translated by GH
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