EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 31 March 2024 — Cuba received a ship from Russia with more than 90,000 tons of oil to alleviate the Island’s energy crisis, the Ministry of Energy and Mines reported on Saturday. The NS Concord, under the flag of Gabon, arrived at the Matanzas base in the west of the country. This is the second shipment of crude oil from Moscow to Havana after the one made on March 17, when 650,000 barrels of crude oil arrived – valued at almost 50 million dollars.
Cuba is going through an energy crisis reflected in interruptions in the electricity service that have lasted more than 10 hours a day.
These shipments occur after several high-level official visits between the two countries. The most recent was that of the Minister of Foreign Trade, Ricardo Cabrisas, to the Eurasian country.
During Cabrisas’ stay in Moscow, Russia granted a new loan to Havana – for an undisclosed amount – to “guarantee the stable supply of oil, petroleum products, wheat and fertilizers,” according to the state agency Prensa Latina.
The Cuban government has recently reported that one of the problems in electricity generation is explained by the drop in crude oil imports from allied countries. Although the Island’s government has not indicated them by name, maritime traffic tracking data point to Venezuela and Russia.
Jorge Piñón, an energy expert at the University of Texas, points out that “Cuba is benefiting, like all the other buyers of the Russian Urals crude, from buying a very good quality crude at a discount. Russia was previously selling the Euro