A Russian tanker with 740,000 barrels of crude oil is sailing through the Atlantic towards Cuba despite the US blockade. The United States has been pressuring Havana since January by cutting off the flow of imported oil, aiming to force the Cuban government to the negotiating table and undertake reforms, primarily economic, following in Venezuela's footsteps. Cuba needs approximately 100,000 barrels daily to meet its energy needs, of which about 40,000 come from its domestic production. With this cargo (and the ship's size), the Anatoly Kolodkin could head to either the Matanzas oil logistics center (northwest) or Cienfuegos (center-south), a bay with a major refinery. The Anatoly Kolodkin, with IMO code 9610808, has no publicly declared destination in Cuba on ship-tracking platforms, but this is a common strategy for sanctioned vessels. Speculation about the possibility of it heading to Cuba has multiplied in recent days as the island's energy crisis worsens due to Washington's oil blockade. Piñón noted that two US Coast Guard cutters are patrolling international waters north of Cuba, vessels that could be tasked with intercepting this tanker. Russia confirmed weeks ago that it was considering sending crude oil to Cuba for humanitarian reasons, despite the decision posing a challenge to Washington. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 29 threatening tariffs on anyone supplying oil to Cuba, but later his country's justice system deemed the use of commercial measures to settle other matters illegal. The threat, however, remained in place, and several experts consulted by EFE agreed that Washington could employ other measures to keep the blockade on Cuba in effect. The inability to cover the remaining demand has resulted in prolonged daily blackouts and an almost complete halt to the economy. "We will have to pay close attention to its trajectory and see if it finally enters any Cuban port," affirmed Piñón, who assured that the last tanker to dock in Cuba with foreign crude was the Ocean Mariner on January 9, with a cargo from Mexico. Piñón expressed surprise that the shipment is of oil "when what Cuba needs is diesel."
