A sanctioned Russian tanker carrying about 730,000 barrels of crude reached Cuba’s port of Matanzas on Monday, giving the island its first oil import in more than three months after a period without oil imports since January 2026.
Who Decided
The US Coast Guard authorized the tanker’s passage after President Trump said from Air Force One on Sunday, March 29, 2026, that he had “no problem” with the delivery. The decision reversed his administration’s de facto oil blockade on Havana.
The tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, departed Russia’s Primorsk port on March 8, 2026, and was escorted by a Russian navy vessel through the English Channel before arriving at Cuba’s port of Matanzas on March 30, 2026.
The shipment came as Washington temporarily eased global Russian oil sanctions to stabilize energy markets disrupted by the Iran war and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
What It Cost Cuba
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the country had experienced three months without oil imports. The blockade began in January 2026 after the US captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, cutting off Cuba’s primary supplier.
The Trump administration then blocked all remaining Venezuelan shipments and threatened punitive tariffs on any third country, including Mexico, that supplied oil to Cuba. The result was multiple total grid collapses across the island of 9.6 million people, severe gasoline rationing, hospital shutdowns, and halted public transport.
Jorge Piñón of the University of Texas Energy Institute estimated the shipment could yield roughly 180,000 barrels of diesel, enough to cover about nine to ten days of Cuba’s daily demand. He also estimated the 730,000 barrels would take 15 to 20 days to refine and another five to ten days to distribute as finished products, covering barely a week of Cuba’s electricity generation needs.
A second vessel, the Hong Kong-flagged Sea Horse, carrying 200,000 barrels of Russian-origin diesel initially destined for Cuba, rerouted to Venezuela during the week of March 30, 2026.
Markets, War Pressure, and Elite Response
President Trump, speaking from Miami on Friday, March 27, 2026, said that “Cuba will be next” after the fall of Venezuela and the attack on Iran.
Gold prices surged on March 30, 2026, with gold jumping 1.5% to $4,580 and hitting an intraday high of $4,619, its highest level in over a week. The rally was tied to President Trump’s Truth Social threat to “blow up and completely obliterate” Iran’s Kharg Island, oil wells, and power plants, the Houthis’ first direct missile strikes on Israel, and Brent crude surging to $117.
Brent crude recorded a 59% gain in March 2026, its largest monthly surge since the 1990 Gulf War. PVM Energy’s Tamas Varga warned that “$200 oil will not be an otherworldly supposition” if the US launches a ground invasion or Kharg seizure.
The Houthis’ entry into the conflict, firing missiles at Israel in support of Iran, threatens to close the Red Sea/Bab al-Mandeb route, an alternative Saudi Arabia has used to bypass Hormuz. David Roche of Quantum Strategy warned that if both chokepoints close, 4–5 million barrels per day could be removed from global markets.
Silver surged 3.3% to $72.39 on March 30, 2026, its best session in two weeks. Asian markets also fell, with the Nikkei down 4.6% and the Hang Seng down 1.9%.
Pakistan offered to mediate talks, but Iran rejected US proposals as “excessive and unreasonable.” On March 13, 2026, Donald Trump warned Tehran to “watch what happens” today. Reuters also reported that Trump was weighing a broader cabinet shake-up in response to the ongoing Iran war pressure.