Report of the arrival of an oil tanker from Brazil to Cuba

This weekend, media reported that Cuba had received an oil tanker that left Brazil more than two weeks ago and that it will work to alleviate the fuel crisis that the island has been suffering for months and has not even been stabilized with the help of various countries.

This is the ship Orion, a tanker of oil and chemical products, which according to Keep track of VesselFinder sailed from Paranagua Station on June 25th and was scheduled to arrive in Cuba on Wednesday July 12th.

However, it is still not known where this Cuban ship disembarked, although on July 10 it was located north of Puerto Rico and was heading towards the Cuban coast. Orion sails with a draft of 7.5 meters, which also indicates that it is loaded with fuel on its way to Cuba.

Cuba’s fuel crisis

This will be the first shipment of oil from Brazil that Cuba has received in recent months, after the supply of Venezuela, which has been the main supplier of crude oil for two decades, decreased due to the fuel crisis in Venezuela itself. To cope with the fuel crisis in the country, the island resorted to the help of other countries such as Russia or Mexico, which sent several ships with crude oil, gasoline and liquefied gas.

According to data from the Eikon app and TankerTrackers.com, since November 2022, at least five shipments have arrived on the island from Russia and other Caribbean terminals. For example, the tanker Bicentenario, from state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), has been unloaded twice at the Havana refinery, as has the Panamanian-flagged ship Fortunato, with two visits to Cuban ports so far this year.

Recently, a Pemex source told Reuters that the company supplied crude to Cuba this year, but without going into further details. On the other hand, it was learned that in May Cuba imported about 58,100 barrels per day from Venezuela, up 30 percent from last April.