Between May and August 2025, Mexico shipped more than $3 billion worth of subsidized fuel to Cuba through Gasolinas Bienestar, a subsidiary of state oil company Pemex, according to an investigation by Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (MCCI). The figure is three times higher than the total shipments during the final two years of the previous administration.
MCCI found that at least 58 fuel shipments — including gasoline, diesel, and crude — departed from Mexican ports over just four months, mostly from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, with three leaving from Tampico, Tamaulipas. The cargoes were tracked through maritime monitoring platforms, showing consistent routes between Mexico and Cuba.
One of the vessels, the Sandino, was included in the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list in 2019 for transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba. Despite this, the Sandino departed from Laguna de Pajaritos on August 20 and arrived a week later at Cuba’s Camilo Cienfuegos refinery, the investigation revealed.
The Cuban importer in most cases was Coreydan S.A., a state-owned company based in Havana that shares offices with CUPET, Cuba’s national oil firm.
The scale of Mexico’s fuel aid to Cuba — equivalent to 60 billion pesos — matches the 2026 federal budget for the country’s Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection and far exceeds the budgets for the Attorney General’s Office and education infrastructure funds combined.
MCCI previously warned that the subsidized shipments have worsened Pemex’s financial health. In its first year, Gasolinas Bienestar reported losses and debt of 5.8 billion pesos, reflecting the cost of supplying Cuba with free fuel.
In contrast to what MCCI reports, in the Miami Herald, energy expert Jorge Piñón questioned the accuracy of the reported $3 billion fuel shipments, noting Cuba lacks the storage capacity for such volumes and that customs data is often unreliable. If true, he said, the surge raises key questions amid Cuba’s energy crisis: “Where is that oil? Is Cuba exporting it?”
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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