Russia Plans to Send Second Tanker Through U.S. Energy Blockade on Cuba

As a Russian tanker unloads in Matanzas, Cuba, breaking the de facto energy blockade imposed by the Trump administration, Moscow is said to be planning to dispatch a second tanker to repeat the much-needed crude oil delivery.

The sanctioned tanker Anatoly Kolodkin arrived at a petroleum terminal in Matanzas on March 31, making one of the few deliveries of oil to reach Cuba since the U.S. replaced Venezuelan dsictator Nicolas Maduro in January. Under Maduro, Venezuela's government supplied Cuba with discounted oil, but under ew U.S.-selected leadership, Venezuela ceased sending cargoes to the island. The Trump administration has also turned away attempted tanker deliveries from Mexico.

The de facto U.S. embargo on energy shipments to Cuba is aimed at weakening the current regime and initiating a transition to new leadership and new economic policies in the socialist-led island nation. Cuba is dependent upon fuel oil for much of its power generation, and the embargo has contributed to extended power outages and transport curtailment (even trash pickup).

The Anatoly Kolodkin's delivery was prearranged with the Trump administration, according to the Kremlin. The president confirmed this week that he had let the vessel pass. "If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem. I prefer letting it in, whether it’s Russia or anybody else," he said at a press conference.

The vessel's oil will provide Cuba some relief, but experts say that the effects will be small and slow to materialize. Crude delivered to Matanzas has to be refined in Havana, and must be trucked overland to get there. The process could take about three weeks to begin putting out usable products, Jorge Pinon of the University of Texas Energy Program told CNN, and the resulting supply would last Cuba about two weeks.

More oil may soon be on the way. On Thursday, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said that another vessel would be dispatched to the island. "A second one is now being loaded. We will not leave the Cubans in trouble," Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev told state media on Thursday.

Top image: VesselFinder / Aart van Bezooijen