An oil tanker that has transported Venezuelan fuel to Cuba since April 2025 finished loading this week a 150,000-barrel cargo of gasoline, a shipping schedule seen by Reuters on Thursday showed, a possible sign that the OPEC country could be preparing to send supplies to the island under US supervision.
As of Thursday, it was not clear yet if the vessel had left Venezuela as it was last spotted by monitoring service TankerTrackers.com in Venezuelan waters on Monday.
Reuters could not confirm the tanker's ultimate destination. Any ship now leaving Venezuelan waters can do so only with US approval due to continued US military presence in the Caribbean and the US control of Venezuela's oil exports since it captured President Nicolas Maduro in January.
Venezuela had been Cuba's largest oil supplier for 25 years until December, when the US oil blockade on the country interrupted shipments, leaving the island with very few options to keep lights on and secure fuel for vehicles.
Mexico, a smaller oil provider to Cuba, sent a fuel cargo in January, but has not supplied anything else since, according to ship monitoring services.
Lines to buy gasoline and diesel at Cuba's stations have grown in recent weeks, according to residents and witnesses, amid the lack of imported fuel. Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel said on Thursday his government would roll out a plan in the next week to deal with fuel shortages.
Tensions between Cuba and the United States rose last week after the US said it would slap tariffs on goods from countries that send oil to Cuba, pushing up prices for food and transportation and prompting severe fuel shortages and hours of blackouts, even in the capital Havana.
The White House on Thursday dismissed Cuba's insistence that talks with the United States take place only on an equal footing.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that diplomacy with Cuba was already "taking place." Leavitt did not provide details.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer, Will Dunham and Julia Symmes Cobb)
