Oil embargo leaves U.S. as Cuba's primary fuel supplier

U.S. ports shipped more than 1.6 million barrels worth over $230 million through August

More than six decades of U.S. efforts to block trade with Cuba have produced an unlikely result, a Wall Street Journal analysis of trade data and interviews with U.S. exporters, Cuban business owners, and officials in Havana and Washington show: the United States is now the island’s primary fuel supplier.

An executive order imposed the oil embargo on Cuba in January, the Journal’s timeline shows, and President Trump has called the measure his “ironclad energy blockade.” Since then, only one oil tanker, from Russia, has docked on the island, and by May the Cuban government said it had run out of fuel oil and diesel. Smaller shipments of U.S. fuel have kept cars, trucks, and household generators running, the Journal’s analysis found.

The administration began allowing U.S. fuel sales to private businesses on the island just weeks after the embargo began. Since then, U.S. ports have shipped more than 1.6 million barrels of fuel worth over $230 million, according to U.S. Census Bureau data through August.

Dozens of U.S. companies, most based in south Florida, now export gasoline, diesel, and related fuel products to Cuba, according to ImportGenius, a global trade data platform. Most shipments leave from Port Everglades and Jacksonville, Fla., and from Houston. U.S. regulations permit fuel sales only to private companies and individuals under an exemption called Support for the Cuban People, which is why the cargo moves in small loads: a growing fleet of ships carrying ISO tanks and smaller fuel containers now shuttles between the two countries.

One of those vessels, Barge 455-4 owned by the shipping company Crowley, made several fuel round trips between Port Everglades and Mariel, Cuba’s main container terminal, in August and September alone. On Sept. 26, it brought in nearly 100 ISO tanks of gasoline and diesel; three days later, it returned to Port Everglades and loaded more tanks for the trip back. David DeCamp, a spokesman for Crowley, said the company transports goods between the U.S. and Cuba only with U.S. approval.

Tracking data show how individual containers move through the same corridor. A truck carrying an empty ISO tank arrived at Mariel on Sept. 26. The tank had made at least two round trips to Cuba in 2026, according to U.S. import data. It remained at the port until Oct. 17, when it was returned to its shipper in Port Everglades, vessel-tracking and customs data show.

Some exporters described the trade as lucrative, saying profit margins exceeded 50% earlier in the year. Competition has since intensified as more U.S. fuel has reached the island, squeezing margins to around 20%, they said. The exporters spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the political sensitivity of trading with Cuba, particularly in south Florida, where many Cuban-Americans oppose it.

Once the fuel is offloaded at Mariel, trucks carry the tanks and containers to private distributors, who sell to smaller businesses and individuals across the island. Informal, privately run gas depots have spread across Havana, where most state-run gas stations remain closed because of U.S. sanctions against Cuban-government entities. On a recent afternoon, cars pulled in and out of one such depot, a nondescript building in Havana that housed dozens of large plastic containers of fuel. Many of these gas depots are now officially recognized private businesses. Cuba began legalizing private fuel sales earlier this year, first for wholesale sales only and now for retail too, a notable shift on an island where the state controls nearly the entire economy, from small bakeries to ports. The government has also begun renting some gas stations owned by the state oil company Unión Cuba-Petróleo, or CUPET, to private businesses to distribute the imported fuel. Cuban officials said the changes are intended to strengthen fuel distribution amid severe shortages they attributed to the Trump administration.

Cuba’s state-run economy is in its worst crisis since the Soviet Union’s collapse in the 1990s. Fuel shortages have crippled economic output and halted public transport, increasing the island’s dependence on its fast-growing private sector, which has been taking over sectors once restricted to state enterprises, including the distribution of food and other basic goods.

“Right now we are seeing a lot of cars and trucks driving in our streets because we have gasoline and fuel that’s imported from the U.S.,” said Oniel Díaz Castellanos, who runs a consulting service for businesses in Cuba. A few months ago, he said, “our streets were absolutely empty.”

“It’s ironic,” said Carlos Luis Méndez, Cuba’s deputy minister for foreign trade and investment. Washington, he told the Journal, appears intent on making Cuba dependent on U.S. fuel. “Completely unacceptable,” he said. A White House spokeswoman declined to respond to that allegation but said the administration is seeking a “fundamental change” in Cuba. The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Cuban officials have denied profiting directly from U.S. fuel exports bound for the island’s private sector. But at least some of the fuel is reaching government-linked entities: during a Journal visit in September, two state-run gas stations were operating, with long lines of cars spilling into the road, and drivers at one said they had reserved spots through CUPET’s app. “There is seepage right now,” said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a nonprofit group that tracks the Cuban business environment. “If you want zero fuel getting into the hands of the government, you’d have to shut it all down,” he said.

U.S. restrictions are hard to enforce in Cuba, where government and enterprise are deeply interconnected. The administration has continued adding companies to its sanctions list almost weekly, forcing exporters to adjust to a growing pool of prohibited business partners. Last month, U.S. authorities seized $3 million worth of fuel they said was being funneled to a state-owned enterprise. Cuba’s government denies any involvement.

U.S. fuel meets only a fraction of Cuba’s needs, which were long met by subsidized Venezuelan shipments. Those stopped after U.S. forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro in January, the Journal reported, and the blockade has kept other allies, such as Mexico, from filling the gap.

Nor have the shipments alleviated the island’s blackouts. Most Cubans still get electricity for only a few hours each day and rely on small generators, increasingly fed by U.S. fuel, to keep food from spoiling and fans running amid scorching heat. About 40% of Cuba’s electricity generation comes from seven interconnected power plants built decades ago, almost all of which have been operating far longer than their intended lifespans. “Those rely on Cuban oil and there’s enough production in Cuba to meet their needs,” said Jorge Piñon, a Cuban energy expert at the University of Texas. Another 40% of the island’s electricity comes from small power stations that run on imported fuel, and that is where the blockade’s effects are sharpest.