A whole bunch of hundreds of barrels of Russian oil are heading to Cuba, in response to maritime monitoring knowledge, because the communist island suffers blackouts below a US financial blockade and Donald Trump threatens to take it over.
The sanctioned Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin loaded 730,000 barrels of crude within the Russian port of Primorsk on 8 March, and on Wednesday at 1600 GMT was within the jap Atlantic, certain for Cuba, maritime analytics agency Kpler stated.
Its knowledge confirmed the Russian-flagged vessel, owned by the Russian state delivery firm Sovcomflot, was scheduled to unload on the Matanzas oil terminal on the north of the island about 23 March.
Trump declared on Monday that he expects to have “the honour of taking Cuba”, claiming that he may do “something I need” amid US negotiations with Havana over the nation’s future.
The US has sought to accentuate strain on Cuba, its longtime foe, since seizing Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January. Trump has since minimize off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened to impose tariffs on any nation promoting oil to the nation, stating that Cuba would obtain “no extra oil or cash” because of his actions.
One other tanker, the Hong Kong-flagged Sea Horse, loaded almost 200,000 barrels of diesel in late January off Cyprus from one other tanker, in response to Kpler knowledge.
It exited the Mediterranean on 13 February and has since been crusing west throughout the Atlantic, slowing down between late February and early March and following an erratic course, the tracker indicated. At 1630 GMT on Wednesday it was within the northwestern Caribbean, about 1,500 km (932 miles) from the Cuban coast.
The Russian-flagged Anatoly Kolodkin is listed as coming below sanctions towards Russia by the USA, European Union and UK.
Cuba has imported no oil since 9 January, when Mexico delivered a cargo within the days after Maduro’s ouster. Mexico got here below strain from Trump to finish such deliveries.
With Agence France-Press
