Albert Huddleston, a Texas oil magnate who has just sold his natural gas assets for $5.2 billion, has been identified as the anchor investor behind the competing bid submitted by the consortium led by Glencore to take control of Sherritt International, the Canadian mining company with nickel operations in Cuba, Bloomberg revealed this Friday.
Huddleston, owner of the family investment office Chota Capital LLC, had remained anonymous since the consortium publicly announced its proposal in June, without disclosing the identity of its U.S. partner.
Who is Albert Huddleston?
Albert Huddleston is an American entrepreneur and investor in the energy sector, based in Dallas and the founder of Aethon Energy Management in 1990.
Graduated in Engineering Sciences from Vanderbilt University, he has over three decades of experience in oil and gas, having started his career at Hunt Energy Corporation and Houston Oil and Minerals.
Under his leadership, Aethon became a significant private producer of natural gas in the United States, with a strong presence in the Haynesville formation, between Texas and Louisiana.
In July 2026, the company completed the sale of energy assets to Mitsubishi Corporation for 5.2 billion dollars.
In addition to Aethon, Huddleston is connected to Chota Capital LLC, his family investment vehicle, from which he engages in other operations and assets.
Two rival offers for a company in crisis
The struggle for Sherritt involves two proposals to acquire at least 55% of the company.
The first comes from Gillon Capital LLC, the office of Dallas real estate entrepreneur Ray Washburne —former head of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation during Trump's first term— who signed a 120-day exclusivity agreement with Sherritt on June 17, which will expire in October.
The second proposal, presented on June 26 by the consortium made up of Glencore, Kyma Capital, Brevan Howard co-founder Trifon Natsis, and Huddleston, offers fresh capital at CAD 0.12 per share.
Its promoters describe it as "fully financed through capital commitments," with no third-party debt conditions, and present it as "a way to stabilize the company's operations."
A group of bondholders has requested that the Sherritt board evaluate both proposals simultaneously.
The trigger: sanctions and operational collapse
The crisis that sparked this battle has a specific origin: the executive order by Trump from May 1 that expanded sanctions against Cuba and introduced secondary measures against foreign financial institutions that do business with blocked Cuban entities.
Six days later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sanctioned GAESA and Moa Nickel S.A., the joint venture of Sherritt with the Cuban state-owned General Nickel Company, accusing the mining company of having “exploited Cuba's natural resources to benefit the regime at the expense of the Cuban people.”
That same day, Sherritt suspended operations and repatriated employees.
The Moa mine in Holguín had already halted production in February due to a lack of fuel. In June, the refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, stopped operations as the supply from the island was exhausted.
The company warned of significant risks to its ongoing business.
The battle is also fought in the courts
Kyma Capital, the largest creditor of Sherritt with approximately 15% of its shares, attempted to force an extraordinary shareholders' meeting before the exclusivity with Gillon expired. Sherritt rejected that call at the end of July.
This Friday, the Ontario Superior Court indicated that it cannot compel the meeting to be held within the requested timeframe. A new hearing is scheduled for the week of August 26.
Sherritt's stock reached a quote of 0.48 Canadian dollars this week, up from a low of 0.13 dollars in early August, before closing on Thursday at 0.28 dollars.
Its current market capitalization is 193.6 million Canadian dollars, which represents a decline of more than 95% from its peak of 4.8 billion in 2008.
Six decades of history and unresolved claims
Whichever of the two operations succeeds would be the first mining company backed by U.S. capital to operate in Cuba in six decades.
However, the path is fraught with legal obstacles.
The facilities in Moa have a litigious origin: the Moa Bay Mining Company was intervened by the Cuban regime on August 19, 1960, and the United States Foreign Claims Settlement Commission certified losses of 88.3 million dollars.
Furthermore, the Cuban state has accumulated a debt of at least 344 million dollars with Sherritt.
William Pitt, a retired engineer from Miami whose family lost mines in the area, has publicly warned Gillon Capital: "When you buy 55% of Sherritt, we will be able to sue you."
Any final transaction will require authorization from the State and Treasury departments, in addition to agreements with the holders of historical claims arising from the confiscations by the regime in the 1960s.
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