Havana/The Mexican press dawned this Saturday with incendiary headlines that question the management of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Between May 29 and June 27, 2025, the company carried out 39 export operations aboard 20 ships to Cuba, which included 10.2 million raw barrels and 132.5 million liters of refined products (turbosine for airplanes, diesel and gasoline). And yet, Cubans continue to suffer endless blackouts: this Saturday, the prognosis of the electricity union provides for a deficit of 1,675 megawatts during peak schedule.
These products, valued at 850 million dollars, were sent through Gasolinas Vigar SA, the Pemex subsidiary created – among other “solidarity” objectives – to export fuel to the island. In those deliveries it even arrived turbosine, the fuel for airplanes that Havana asked for signs last December and that caused that flights for several hours be canceled at the airport of the capital.
Mexico has even replaced Venezuela in the amount of fuel sent to the island. In June, Caracas sent only 8,000 barrels per day (BPD), instead of the 50,000 monthly average in the previous years, although in July it increased its exports to 31,000 BPD. Instead, Mexico delivered to Cuba in June 333,000 BPD only in raw, in addition to fuel.
The amount almost reaches the value of the oil that Pemex sent to Cuba for more than a year, between July 2023 and September 2024: about 1,000 million dollars. Deliveries have continued since last June, with the Ocean Marinerwhose arrival at Cienfuegos is scheduled for tomorrow, August 17, and with the Sandinowhich is currently carrying raw in the Mexican port of Pajaritos-Coatzacoalcos, in the state of Veracruz, where it arrived on June 28.
Of the total shipments of 2025, 19 left from Coatzacoalcos and one from Tampico, in Tamaulipas, with 6.8 million liters of diesel. The importing company was Coreydan SA, a Cuban state of which little is known, but in 2023 imported welfare hydrocarbons worth $ 60 million between July and another date that is unknown, according to Bloomberg. According to the Mexican press, the state shares headquarters in Havana with the Cuba-Petroleo Union (CUPET), on Friendship Street 552, in Centro Habana. 14ymedio He was able to verify in the place that no neighbor of the building had heard of Coreydan.
From shipments from May to June of this year, everyone registered as an importing company to Coreydan less one, dated June 19, in which 8 million liters of regular gasoline were sent commissioned by the Secretariat of Foreign Relations of Mexico.
/ 14ymedio
Other ships involved in the transfer of crude between Mexico and the island are the Ocean Marinerwho arrived in Havana in July With 13,000 tons (approximately 91,000 barrels) of fuel from the Madero City Refinery, after having made at least two previous trips in the year. The tanker plans to reach the port of Cienfuegos this Sunday.
In previous years, Mexican media review, frequent trips of the Bicentennialowned by Pemex Logistics, which made four visits to Havana and one to Matanzas in 2023. To this are added Cuban vessels such as the DELSA (eight trips), the Hope (six trips) and the Vilma (17 trips) between 2023 and 2024, all from the Coatzacoalcos-Pajaritos terminal.
In a report before the US stock and securities commission in 2024, Pemex had already recognized that since July 2023 its subsidiary Gasolinas Vigar SA acquired crude oil and oil products from its own companies to export them to Cuba. In that same report, the company declared to have exported between July and December 2023 products for 400 million dollars and, in 2024, another 600 million.
As for 2025, in the First quarter Mexico sent 19,600 barrels of oil per day (BPD) to the island, whose value amounts to more than 166 million dollars, according to the Welfare Gasoline reports SA in the absence of data for the months of April and May, it is already a fact that the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum has given its Cuban ally more than 1,000 million dollars in oil and derivatives.
However, this millionaire support has not been free for Mexico. On February 25, the Mexican Association against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) revealed that Pemex has further indebted as a result of these shipments, which were subsidized at least until the last years of Manuel Andrés López Obrador (2018-2024). It is currently unknown if Havana disburses something for these deliveries, if it is a barter in exchange for services (although Cuba already receives a very high payment for its health missions) or if it is a donation from Mexico.
Pemex has borrowed even more as a result of these shipments, which were subsidized at least until the last years of Manuel Andrés López Obrador
Last July, the Patronal Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) warned that the Pemex accumulated debt With its suppliers, mostly SMEs, threatens thousands of businesses throughout the country, especially in key regions of the energy sector.
According to a statement from the agency, which represents more than 36,000 companies, responsible for 30% of the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP), although Pemex reduced its debt with suppliers at the end of the first quarter of the year – going on about 20.2 billion dollars -, the amount remains “of unsustainable proportions”.
Mexico is also not able to export such amounts of crude oil, local media criticized on Saturday. With headlines like Pemex prioritizes Cuba over Mexico in gasoline shortage; Gasolinas are scarce … and Cuba enjoys Pemex either While missing gasoline in Mexico, Pemex sends millionaire cargoes to CubaThe press denounced that in Mexico City, State of Mexico, Nuevo León and Chiapas, gasoline supply problems have been reported.
