The president Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are scheduled to visit the port of Port Arthur, Texas, this Tuesday to showcase a newly arrived tanker loaded with Venezuelan crude oil intended for Texas refineries.
The advance notice of the visit to the oil tanker in Texas was announced by Associated Press, citing two U.S. officials and a Congressional advisor who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The event has a backdrop that strikes directly at the Cuban dictatorship. Venezuelan oil, which for years was an important source of supply for Cuba, is now going to U.S. refineries.
Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026, shipments of Venezuelan oil to Cuba were completely interrupted. The last shipment arrived on the island on December 8, 2025.
Since then, Cuba has been experiencing its worst energy crisis in decades. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, warned that Cuba "will not have fuel in the short term".
Interprovincial bus travel from Havana plummeted from 419 daily in 2025 to just 11 in 2026, a figure that illustrates the extent of paralysis the country is experiencing.
The visit comes after the oil agreement announced in August 2026, which the Republican president described as "the largest in history."
The strategic partnership agreement, consisting of 18 pages, was signed by Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It was not signed with the Venezuelan government but with North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), a private company linked to the Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt López.
In the agreement, the U.S. would acquire 35% of NABEP with a preferential right to its production for 50 years, covering 17 fields with estimated reserves of 65 billion barrels.
The visit to the oil rig will not be Trump's only event in Texas
The president has scheduled rallies in Corpus Christi and Lubbock to support the Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who is in a very tight race against Democrat James Talarico just one week before the midterm elections on November 3rd.
Rubio's presence on the tour is unusual. It would be the first time that the Secretary of State accompanies Trump on a campaign trip since taking office.
AP noted that "it is very unusual for the country's chief diplomat to participate in political trips" and that the episode reflects how Trump's second presidency has blurred the line between governing and campaigning.
The event in Port Arthur has also been planned at a time of maximum pressure from Rubio on Cuba. Just a few days ago, he publicly called on Cubans to collaborate with the CIA. Rubio stated that Cuba "needs a very drastic change" and that its situation is "completely different" from that of Venezuela.
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