Mexico resumes oil shipments to Cuba.

Mexico is about to resume oil shipments to Cuba after a three-month pause.

The Cuban-flagged tanker Vilma arrived this Monday at the Pajaritos terminal in Coatzacoalcos, in the city of Veracruz, and is waiting to load at that port, as reported by the Reuters agency on Wednesday.

Maritime tracking applications like Vesselfinder or Marine Traffic confirm that the Cuban ship is in Mexico.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration sent crude oil to the island for the last time in February, when the tanker Esperanza set sail from Pajaritos with 350,000 barrels.

This figure raised the total barrels delivered to Cuba during AMLO's term to 7,435,000, with an estimated value of 537 million dollars.

The Mexican state company PEMEX has become the second-largest crude oil supplier to the island since the second quarter of 2023, ahead of other allies of the regime such as Russia, and behind Venezuela, which tops the list.

PEMEX sends light crude through a subsidiary company it owns aboard Cuba's tanker fleet, emphasizes Reuters.

Since it began regular oil exports last year, Mexico sent an average of 21,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Cuba until February, according to data cited by Reuters.

The shipments from the second half of last year were valued by PEMEX at around 400 million dollars.

In June 2023, Mexican journalist Gerardo Aburto reported that PEMEX was allegedly diverting resources through the Gasolineras del Bienestar project to "give away crude oil to the oppressive Government of Cuba."

Venezuela's oil supply to Cuba fell to about 24,500 bpd in the first four months of this year, compared to almost 50,000 bpd in the same period of 2023.

Cuba needs around 125,000 bpd of fuels, including motor gasoline, diesel, and fuel oil for power generation, according to the Statistical Information Office.

That volume faces a national oil production of around 40,000 bpd, which creates a permanent need for imports.

Cuba is in desperate need of fuel. The frequency of power outages has increased considerably in recent weeks, leading to some protests, something that the Cuban government is particularly concerned about following the historic anti-government protests in July 2021.

For this Thursday, the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) forecasted that during peak hours, disruptions in the electricity service are expected to exceed 1,000 MW, a figure that has become a common occurrence amid the current crisis.

Perhaps already counting on Mexican oil, CIMEX announced this Thursday that they will open 17 new dollar-based service stations starting on Saturday to "satisfy" the demand for fuel.