An oil tanker from Brazil arrives in Cuba

he Orionthe oil and chemical products tanker, which left Brazil on June 25, was supposed to arrive in Cuba last Wednesday.

It is still not clear in which Cuban port this Vietnamese-flagged ship will dock, which, according to her The last location acquired by the VesselFinder trackerJuly 10, north of Puerto Rico, heading toward the Cuban coast.

he Orion It sails with a draft of 7.5 meters and departs from the terminal of Paranagua, the second largest port in Brazil.

In recent months, to mitigate fuel shortage in the country, After declining supplies from Venezuela, which for two decades had been its main supplier of crude oil, Cuba turned to oil from other countries such as Russia or Mexico. However, this is the first time in recent months that it has been reported that an oil tanker has arrived from Brazil.

From November 2022At least five shipments from Russia and Caribbean stations arrived on the islandAccording to data recorded by the Eikon app and TankerTrackers.com website.

tanker bicentenaryowned by the state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), has been unloaded twice since April at the Havana refinery, one of the few that produces gasoline on the island.

also ship luckyflying the flag of Panama, has visited Cuban ports twice since January, coming from the Mexican terminal of Salina Cruz, with liquefied gas that is used to cook food.

A Pemex source, speaking on condition of anonymity, also told Reuters that the company had supplied crude oil to Cuba this year, without giving details.

However, it has recently become known that during the month of May Cuba imported about 58,100 barrels per day. From its ally, Venezuela, a figure that increased by 30 percent during April and reached the monthly global figure of 1,743 thousand barrels per day.

Cuba needs Venezuelan fuel shipments to cover more than half of its demand, which before the pandemic amounted to 137,000 barrels per day of fuel oil, diesel, gasoline and other refined products, according to Cuba’s National Statistical Office.