Pemex Extends Oil Shipments to Power-Starved Cuba

Petróleos Mexicanos is maintaining regular crude and fuel shipments to Cuba, providing the Caribbean nation with energy support as it grapples with frequent blackouts and its worst economic downturn in decades. Regulatory filings show that through its subsidiary Gasolinas Bienestar, the state-owned producer sold MXN 3.1 billion (about US$166 million) of hydrocarbons to the island in the first quarter of 2025. The deliveries averaged 19,600 barrels a day of crude oil and 2,000 barrels a day of refined products, equal to 3.3 percent of Pemex’s total crude exports and 1.9 percent of its refined-product exports for the period. It is the seventh consecutive quarter in which Pemex has sent energy cargoes to Cuba, a policy the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum describes as humanitarian assistance. Pemex said in its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it has procedures in place to ensure the trade complies with applicable laws. The ongoing shipments, however, risk adding friction with the United States, which maintains long-standing sanctions on the Cuban government.