Madrid/The Mexican state oil company Pemex canceled an oil shipment to Cuba scheduled for this month, according to the American media Bloomberg. According to the information, published this Monday, the company had planned a shipment for mid-January in the Swift Galaxywith a Panamanian flag, and which was supposed to arrive this end of the month, but disappeared from the calendar.
Bloomberg indicates that he contacted the oil company and the Mexican Ministry of Energy, who did not immediately respond to his question. Likewise, several Mexican media, such as The Day or Sipse have tried to contact Pemex with different results. They assured the first “not having any information about it”, while the second says he has turned to experts not having comments from the company. “Sources related to the energy sector indicate that the adjustment could be linked to factors such as the availability of crude oil, logistical planning and international market conditions,” they point out.
The decision comes almost two weeks after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, stated through social networks: “there will be no more oil or money for Cuba: zero.” The message was part of a reference to how the regime had benefited from Venezuelan crude oil, favoring its survival, but it raised the question of whether it was limited to PDVSA products – which it now controls in a certain way – or extended it to other countries.
“Sources related to the energy sector indicate that the adjustment could be linked to factors such as the availability of crude oil, logistical planning and international market conditions,” they point out.
A few hours later, the US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, said in a interview with CBS that the policy would be to “allow” Mexico to continue bringing crude oil to Cuba. According to Bloomberg information, it is precisely on those days when the tanker should have been loaded. Swift Galaxy.
The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, also spoke on January 13 with Donald Trump in a telephone conversation in which it was speculated that the situation with Cuba could be addressed, but both parties denied it. “We had a very good conversation with the president of the United States, Donald Trump. We talked about different topics, including security with respect to our sovereignty, the decrease in drug trafficking, trade and investments,” the president said on her social networks.
Next, in the morning press conference, Sheinbaum expressly stated that he did not speak with Trump about Cuba, but that he could facilitate a negotiation between both countries. “Obviously, if Mexico were to become a vehicle for communication between the United States and Cuba, then both parties obviously have to accept,” he said, hours after the American had demanded that Havana sit down to negotiate and even assured that they were already doing so, something that was denied by the Cuban side.
The Mexican president has subsequently insisted that cooperation with Cuba was historic and would be maintained, but this Friday Reuters published information based on the statements of three high-level sources who stated that the Mexican Executive is evaluating whether to maintain, reduce or suspend the supply of crude oil to the Island for fear of reprisals. “There is a real fear of antagonizing Trump just when Mexico needs room for negotiation with Washington,” said an official consulted by the agency. The report coincided with the publication in the newspaper Political that the White House is considering the option of resorting to the Helms-Burton Act to “impose a total blockade of oil imports by Cuba.”
Mexican officials maintained that there was a growing presence of US Navy drones over the Gulf of Mexico following routes similar to those of tankers transporting Mexican fuel to Cuba. “It’s impossible not to read that as a message,” one of the sources admitted.
The cancellation of the January shipment, in any case, precedes this information, but the context is unequivocal. The last shipment of Pemex crude oil that arrived in Cuba was that of Ocean Mariner, January 9, with around 85,000 barrels of fuel from Veracruz.
The last shipment of Pemex crude oil that arrived in Cuba was that of the Ocean Mariner, on January 9, with around 85,000 barrels of fuel from Veracruz
In 2023, exports amounted to about 16,000 bpd of oil and derivatives (worth about $300 million). In 2024, the collaboration rose to 20,100 bpd, 20% more (although derivatives fell 18%), with a joint value estimated at 600 million dollars.
Between January and September 2025, Mexico supplied the Island – through the subsidiary of Pemex Gasolinas Bienestar – around 19,200 barrels per day to Cuba, distributed, according to official documentsin 17,200 of crude oil and 2,000 of derivatives. The expert from the University of Texas, Jorge Piñón, estimates that in the first 13 months of the Sheinbaum Administration (between October 2024 and November 2025) the average was 8,700 barrels per day.
Pemex is currently the largest supplier of oil in the absence of Venezuelan crude, since contributions from Russia, Iran or Algeria represented – at least until now – a very small contribution. Even so, Cuba – which needs at least 110,000 barrels a day and only produces 40,000 of heavy crude oil, which is only useful for thermal power plants – is in a severe energy crisis and blackouts are beginning to exceed 40 uninterrupted hours in several provinces.
