Cuba is seeking to restore oil shipments from Mexico after the Trump administration's threats of punitive tariffs forced one of the island's largest fuel suppliers to suspend deliveries earlier this year.
Cuba's ambassador to Mexico, Eugenio Martínez Enríquez, expressed hope that shipments would resume in an interview with Spanish news agency EFE last week.
Until recently, Mexico was one of Cuba's largest oil suppliers. Mexico exported an average of 12,284 barrels of crude oil daily to Cuba in 2025, compared with 9,528 from Venezuela, according to Financial Times.
Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex reported supplying an average of 15,000 barrels of crude and 2,200 barrels of petroleum products daily last year, worth nearly $500 million.
Those figures challenge Secretary of State Marco Rubio's explanation of Cuba's fuel crisis. In May, Rubio denied the existence of a U.S. oil blockade, claiming Cuba's shortages were the result of Venezuela no longer providing “free oil.”
But Cuba was also buying substantial quantities of fuel from Mexico under a commercial agreement. Martínez said Cuba regularly paid for those shipments before the contract was suspended.
In February, Drop Site News journalist José Luis Granados Ceja reported that Pemex was willing to continue supplying Cuba, but the Mexican government was seeking a diplomatic solution with Washington before resuming deliveries.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has defended her country's right to supply oil to Cuba and proposed resuming shipments through private companies, following Cuban reforms allowing private businesses to import fuel.
But Mexico has not sent a single oil shipment this year while Cubans endure blackouts lasting more than 20 hours a day.
Neither government has announced an agreement or specified when deliveries might restart.