U.S. fuel exports to Cuba reached US$74,863,132 in August 2026, while the island’s main power plant broke down again and its peak-hour electricity shortfall topped 2,000 megawatts, according to trade figures and reporting by Diario de Cuba. Fuel accounted for about 37% of the US$202.5 million in U.S. goods exports to Cuba that month. The figures show a sharp rise in trade under an embargo that remains in force.
Record Trade Under the Embargo
A tally of Commerce Department data released on Thursday 8 October put August fuel exports at about US$74,863,132, up from about US$61.1 million in July. The US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a New York-based organization that compiles official U.S. trade data on Cuba, reported the breakdown by product and port. Its table doesn't name the exporters or buyers.
The US$202.5 million in total goods exports set a monthly record in Census Bureau data dating to 1992. Before 2026, no monthly total in those records topped US$89.7 million, the figure for August 2025. U.S. goods exports to Cuba reached US$148.9 million in July; imports from Cuba were about US$0.1 million in August.
From January through August, U.S. fuel exports to Cuba totaled about US$231.7 million. U.S. goods exports overall reached US$876.5 million during those eight months, already exceeding the full-year 2025 total of US$809.6 million. August fuel sales alone made up about a third of the eight-month fuel total. Across the first eight months of 2026, fuel represented about 26% of U.S. exports to Cuba.
Diesel-type light fuel oil with very low sulphur content led August sales, at about US$34.5 million. Unleaded gasoline brought in about US$24.4 million, and other petroleum oils accounted for about US$12.7 million. Smaller shipments included liquefied propane worth about US$1.3 million, along with lubricating oils, greases and medicinal-grade white mineral oil.
Who Receives the Fuel?
The Miami customs district handled about US$49.6 million, or two-thirds of August’s total. Houston-Galveston shipped about US$19.1 million, New Orleans about US$5.5 million and Tampa about US$0.7 million. The records don't reveal who sold or received the fuel, how buyers paid, whether anyone re-exported it, or how much went to private firms instead of state companies such as Cupet.
The U.S. embargo, in force since 1962, bars most trade with Cuba, though licenses and exceptions permit some exports. Diario de Cuba said those exceptions are intended in theory for Cuba’s private sector. The publication reported that Jorge Piñón of the University of Texas Energy Institute sees Cupet, the Cuban state oil company, as the final receiver.
Havana accuses Washington of using the licenses to create economic dependence. Diario de Cuba reported that oil shipments from Venezuela and Mexico stopped after a U.S. tariff threat in January, and that the United States has since become Cuba’s main fuel supplier through private channels. The trade records don't show how much fuel reaches state companies and how much reaches private firms.
Seizure and Power Shortfall
On 13 July 2026, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.S. Treasury unit that administers sanctions, blacklisted Havana fuel wholesaler ENETEC S.A. U.S. federal agents announced on Wednesday 7 October that they had seized 90 Cuba-bound biodiesel shipments worth more than US$2.8 million, or about 615,000 gallons. The agents held the cargo, bound for ENETEC, at Port Everglades in Florida and the Port of Houston.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez protested the seizure on Thursday 8 October. Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío called the U.S. action piracy, Diario de Cuba reported. U.S. agencies haven't said whether the seizure will bring criminal charges. The figures don't point to a change in U.S. policy; the embargo remains in force.
Fuel shipments haven't stopped the power cuts. The Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas, which Diario de Cuba described as the country's main plant, broke down again on Friday 9 October. The publication reported that it was the plant’s 23rd shutdown of 2026. With the plant out of service, the peak-hour shortfall topped 2,000 megawatts, based on the publication’s count from state grid forecasts. The Census Bureau scheduled the release of September trade figures for Wednesday 4 November 2026.