M044-CUBA LLEGA A MATANZAS EL PETROLERO RUSO

A Russia-flagged tanker carrying some 700,000 barrels of crude arrived in Cuba's Matanzas Bay at daybreak on Tuesday (March 31), marking the first significant oil delivery since the Trump administration cut off the island's fuel supply.

The Anatoly Kolodkin vessel, under U.S. sanctions, entered Cuban territorial waters late on Sunday (March 29) not far from the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. said it was allowing the tanker to deliver fuel for humanitarian reasons.

Reuters video showed the ship entering Cuba's largest fuel storage port and preparing to approach its offloading facilities. Much of the nearby city - and the majority of Cuba - was without power at that time.

The ship is carrying Russian Urals, a medium sour crude, which is a good fit for Cuba's ageing refineries.

Cuba has not received an oil tanker in three ⁠months, according to President Miguel Diaz-Canel, a predicament which exacerbated an energy crisis that has brought repeated blackouts across the country of 10 million people, crippling healthcare, public transportation and farming.