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Héctor Castro Santana, grandson of Ramón Castro and great-grandson of Ángel Castro Argiz—father of Fidel and Raúl—, serves as a joint administrator of MAY Energía España SL, the Spanish subsidiary of the Australian oil company Melbana Energy Limited, which the Cuban government authorized to export crude oil extracted from Block 9 in Cuba, according to an investigation by journalist Salome Garcia published on Substack.
The company was incorporated on April 25, 2024, and its incorporation act was published in June of that year in the Official Bulletin of the Spanish Mercantile Registry.
His address is Calle Alcalá 114 - 1º A, Madrid, the same location from which The CC Law Firm, the law firm of Castro Santana, operates.
Alongside him are listed as joint administrators Andrew Gerard Purcell, president of Melbana, and, since January 2025, Uno Makotsvana, the company's financial director.
The joint structure implies that the signature of all administrators is required to authorize any action, which grants the Castro family direct control over the sale of Cuban oil through a company based abroad.
The investigation indicates that this scheme would allow the Castro family to manage the sale of oil from Block 9 directly, bypassing both the business conglomerate GAESA and the state oil company CUPET.
Castro Santana graduated in Law from the University of Havana in 1999 and moved to Spain at the age of 24, utilizing his Spanish citizenship, which is shared by other family members due to Ángel Castro's Galician roots.
In a 2018 interview with the Galician media outlet El Progreso, he acknowledged having good relations with his great-uncle Raúl Castro and with the Cuban embassy in Spain.
In 2021, Castro Santana managed the law firms The CC Law Firm and Boza Abogados y Consultores SL, the real estate agency Elite Real Estate & Consultancy SL, and the event production company Hummo Productions SL.
A YucaByte investigation published in 2024 also revealed his connections to companies dedicated to exporting charcoal, spirits, honey, fruits, fish, and seafood from Cuba.
Melbana Energy Limited acquired 100% of the extraction rights for 25 years in Block 9 in September 2015, an area of 2,380 km² located 140 km east of Havana, through a production sharing contract with CUPET.
In 2020, it partnered with the Angolan state oil company Sonangol, which took a 70% stake in exchange for financing 85% of the drilling operations.
In 2023, Melbana announced the discovery of light oil in the Alameda-2 well, located in the municipality of Martí, Matanzas, with a flow rate of 1,903 barrels per day, which CUPET experts described as one of the "most positive outcomes obtained in recent years by foreign investors operating in Cuba."
The discovery was confirmed by Cuban authorities and raised hopes regarding the export potential of Block 9.
However, the operation is facing difficulties. In December 2025, Sonangol defaulted on payments amounting to 23.5 million dollars and requested to postpone drilling.
In April 2026, Melbana notified of the breach and considered that Sonangol had withdrawn from Block 9, initiating actions to assume its 70% participation.
At the close of the fiscal year 2025, the total inventory was just 22,863 barrels, valued at approximately 1.5 million dollars, while Cuba requires about 100,000 barrels daily to meet its national demand.
The finding comes at a time of heightened pressure on foreign operations in Cuba. On May 1, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14404, which expands sanctions against foreign individuals operating in sensitive sectors of the Cuban economy, including energy, defense, and mining.
As an immediate response, the Canadian mining company Sherritt International announced the suspension of all its joint ventures in Cuba last Thursday, in anticipation of a possible designation as a sanctioned entity.
Melbana has not issued a public statement on this matter.
It remains to be seen whether the board of directors of the Australian oil company will be willing to cooperate with U.S. authorities, if required, to disclose the terms of its agreements with the Castro family.
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