Albert Huddleston, a Texas oil tycoon who recently sold his natural gas assets for $5.2 billion, has been identified as the anchor investor behind the competing bid that the consortium led by Glencore submitted 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 made its proposal public in June, without revealing the identity of its American partner.
Who is Albert Huddleston?
Albert Huddleston is an American entrepreneur and investor in the energy sector, based in Dallas, and founder in 1990 of Aethon Energy Management.
Graduated in Engineering Sciences from Vanderbilt University, he has over three decades of experience in the oil and gas industry, 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, spanning 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 associated with Chota Capital LLC, his family investment vehicle, through which he engages in other operations and assets.
Two rival offers for a struggling company
The struggle for Sherritt features 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, presented on June 26 by the consortium made up of Glencore, Kyma Capital, the co-founder of Brevan Howard Trifon Natsis, and Huddleston, offers fresh capital at 0.12 Canadian dollars per share.
Its promoters describe it as "fully funded 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 Sherritt's board evaluate both proposals concurrently.
The trigger: sanctions and operational collapse
The crisis that sparked this battle has a specific origin: the executive order by Trump from May 1 which expanded sanctions against Cuba and introduced secondary measures against foreign financial institutions that engage 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 Fort Saskatchewan refinery in Alberta stopped operations after running out of supplies from the island.
The company warned of serious risks to its ongoing operations as a functioning business.
The battle is also fought in the courts
Kyma Capital, the largest creditor of Sherritt, holding approximately 15% of its shares, attempted to convene an extraordinary shareholders' meeting before the exclusivity agreement with Gillon expired. Sherritt rejected that call at the end of July.
This Friday, the Ontario Superior Court indicated that it cannot be compelled to hold the meeting within the requested timeframe. A new hearing is scheduled for the week of August 26.
Sherritt's stock reached a high 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, representing a decline of over 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 U.S.-backed mining company to operate in Cuba in six decades.
However, the road is fraught with legal obstacles.
The facilities in Moa have a contentious origin: the Moa Bay Mining Company was seized by the Cuban regime on August 19, 1960, and the Commission on Foreign Claims Settlement of the United States 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 relatives lost mines in the area, has already 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, as well as agreements with the holders of historical claims resulting from the confiscations by the regime in the 1960s.
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