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By Ayose Naranjo
MATANZAS, Cuba, March 31 (Reuters) – A Russia-flagged tanker carrying some 700,000 barrels of Russian oil arrived in the anchorage area of the Cuban port of Matanzas at daybreak Tuesday, according to a Reuters witness and ship tracking data, preparing for the first significant delivery of crude oil since the Trump administration moved to cut off the island’s fuel supply.
The Anatoly Kolodkin vessel, under U.S. sanctions, entered Cuban territorial waters late on Sunday not far from the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. The United States said it was allowing the tanker to deliver fuel for humanitarian reasons.
The Aframax tanker entered the Bay of Matanzas – the country’s largest supertanker and fuel storage port – under clear skies and light winds at sunrise. Much of the nearby city – and the majority of Cuba – was without power when the tanker arrived at the port area.
Cuba has not received an oil tanker in three months, according to President Miguel Diaz-Canel, exacerbating an energy crisis that has led to seemingly endless blackouts across the country of 10 million people and brought hospitals, public transportation and farm production to the brink of collapse.
The fuel, if delivered, would give Cuba’s Communist-run government breathing room amid growing pressure from the Trump administration, which has promised change in Cuba.
It will take days before the crude onboard the Anatoly Kolodkin can be processed domestically and turned into motor fuel and refined products such as diesel and fuel oil for power generation.
The ship is carrying Russian Urals, a medium sour crude, which is a good fit for Cuba’s aging refineries.
(Reporting by Ayose Naranjo in Matanzas; additional reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Dave Sherwood in Havana; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
