Madrid/When the country is suffering a serious energy crisis, Russian aid comes again with about 740,000 raw -raw rackets aboard the ‘Akademik Gubkin’. The tanker has arrived this Thursday at the Bay of Nepa, where he will proceed in the next few days to the transfer of his load to ships of lower size, which store the oil in the absence of the matanzas super -tanks, destroyed by a fire three years ago.
This is the same operation that the ship performed the previous time he was in the countrylast February. Then, Cuban ships Vilma and Lourdes They were in charge of bringing the crude to the Havana and Cienfuegos refineriesto produce the different types of fuel that the country needs.
On that occasion, the arrival of Akademik Gubkinas well as other great -draft tanks, It was barely reflected in a decrease in energy deficit. The precarious state of Cuban refineries hinders the arrival of that fuel to gas stations and thermoelectric plants.
Taking into account that Russian oil is at $ 65.49 a barrel, the approximate value of the load of the Akademik Gubkin It exceeds 48 million dollars. Where Cuba gets money to pay it is a mystery, but this type of operations demonstrates, in the eyes of the expert of the University of Texas Jorge Piñón, “the interest of the Russians to export the highest volume of oil under the current sanctions.” The price of the Russian barrel has continued to fall from the sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine, and that is why Moscow has to export more to keep its income at the same level.
Crude shipments to the island by Russia, in any case, have decreased in recent years
Crude shipments to the island by Russia, in any case, have decreased in recent years. Also, although not at the same level, those of Venezuela. The fuel supplier role has been resumed by Mexico, first with the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and then with his successor, Claudia Sheinbaumwhich is a source of controversy in the country.
Last Sunday, the Mexican newspaper The Universal He published a report in which he denounced that the state oil company, Pemex, refuses to present the vouchers that accredit the amounts supposedly paid by Havana to Mexico for oil shipments and derivatives since July 2023.
The company responded to an application for transparency made by the newspaper that was a “private” issue: “Gasolinas well -being, SA de CV is a subsidiary of Petróleos Mexicanos that, in accordance with article 63 of the Law of the Public Company of the State, Petróleos Mexicanos, is constituted as a commercial company of private law and does not constitute a parastatal entity, so it cannot be considered obliged to transparency ”.
The information on the fuel shipments that Mexico makes to the island has remained hidden since mid -2023. The suspicion that it is donations, despite the denial of the president of Pemex, is maintained, although the statement of the then Mexican chancellor Alicia Bárcenas about studying how Petroleum charged the oil generated doubts about it. More than two years have passed and it is not yet known if the island receives the fuel for bartering or as part of a triangulated pact with Venezuela, which has been breaking the agreement to export at least 55,000 BPD to the island for more than a year.
