Mexico is looking for ways to keep supplying oil to Cuba amid a U.S. squeeze on energy supplies to the island nation without triggering a response from Washington, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed sources.
“There are talks happening almost every other day,” one of these sources told the publication. “Mexico doesn’t want tariffs imposed, but it is also firm in its policy of helping the Cuban people.”
Earlier this month, President Trump threatened he would impose import tariffs on any nation that ships oil to Cuba as he seeks a government overthrow in Havana by choking the energy supply. Despite the threats, Mexico’s state oil company said this week it intended to uphold its contract with the government in Havana and continue shipping oil there.
That statement follows reports about Pemex canceling a planned oil cargo for Cuba at the end of January in response to Trump’s pressure campaign, with Reuters noting that the Mexican leadership was worried about getting punished by Washington if it kept shipping oil to Cuba.
The latest report confirms there is worry about tariffs, but, as Reuters points out, the ruling party in Mexico has long-standing ideological ties with the government in Cuba. For now, it seems the most likely solution to the problem would be to send fuel cargos to Cuba as humanitarian aid, as the Cuban authorities warn of “acute fuel shortages”. The United Nations’ Antonio Guterres has also issued a warning of imminent humanitarian “collapse”.
Russia’s ambassador to Cuba, meanwhile, said Russia would continue shipping crude oil to the island nation, despite the tariff threats. Trump has called Cuba’s current government an “extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security. Mexico has been a steady supplier of oil to the island, at a daily rate of some 17,000 bpd to 20,000 bpd as of early 2025, but the biggest oil supplier to Cuba was Venezuela – until the U.S. ousted its president and took over the management of the country’s oil industry.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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