Mexico might be replacing Venezuela as Cuba’s key economic savior, sending $3 billion in oil between May and August, some of it in a Cuban ship under U.S. sanctions, a Mexican group fighting corruption claims.

The explosive allegations appear in a report by Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad — Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity — which cites information from Mexican customs and exports data on tracking websites such as Veritrade.

According to the report, Mexican state oil company Pemex declared 58 shipments of crude oil, gasoline and other products to Mexican customs, valued at 60 billion Mexican pesos — about $3.25 billion — destined for Cuba over four months through a subsidiary, Gasolinas Bienestar. The importer listed in most of the shipments is an obscure Cuban company, Coreydan, linked to Cuban state oil company Unión-Cubapetróleo, known as CUPET.

The figures are so high that they would mean that in just four months, the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sent to Cuba three times the amount of oil Pemex declared it sent in a year and a half, between July 2023 and the end of 2024.

Pemex, which owns a refinery in Houston and operates some service stations in the U.S., has reported much lower figures itself for shipments to Cuba.

In its most recent disclosure to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the second quarter of 2025, Pemex says Gasolinas Bienestar has exported to Cuba only 17,900 barrels per day of crude oil and 1,700 barrels per day of petroleum products until June this year, for a total of 5.3 billion Mexican pesos, or around $300 million. The company has not published data for July and August. The company reports to the SEC because it sells bonds on the U.S. market.

Pemex did not respond to a request for comment.

Debate over the figures

Jorge Piñón, an energy sector expert and a senior research fellow at the University of Texas’s Austin Energy Institute, questioned the high numbers cited in the report by the anti-corruption group and cautioned against using customs data to track oil shipments, which is frequently revised. He also noted that “Cuba has no storage capacity to store all that oil.”

Ultimately, if those numbers end up been accurate, given Cuba’s ongoing energy crisis and Cuban officials’ repeated statements about oil shortages to justify daily blackouts on the island, such a massive influx of oil leads to other questions, Piñón says: “Where is that oil? Is Cuba exporting that oil?”

The Cuban company listed as the oil importer in the Mexican customs data, Coreydan S.A., is “dedicated to importing and exporting fuels and lubricants,” according to an official bulletin of the Cuban Office of Industrial Property. Last year, the company filed a request with that office to change its address to that of the Empresa de Ingeniería y Proyectos del Petróleo — Petroleum Engineering and Projects Company — part of CUPET.

In the past, the reexport of Venezuelan oil was one of Cuba’s largest sources of foreign currency. But that revenue stream dried out as Venezuela struggled with low oil production and a severe economic downturn under strongman Nicolás Maduro.

The new report by Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity does not specify how the 58 shipments arrived on the island. A screenshot of the customs data for July and August shows that some shipments have the same date, suggesting that more than one shipment could have been dispatched in a single tanker. The report also does not specify the total number of oil barrels sent to Cuba during the four-month period.

In an earlier, more detailed report, the same group cited customs data for 39 shipments over 29 days — between May and June — destined for Cuba, totaling 10 million barrels of crude oil and 132.5 million liters of gasoline, which the report values at around $850 million.

Most of the oil going to Cuba left from the city of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico, the most recent report by the group says, citing satellite tracking data and customs information. One of the vessels involved, the Sandino, is a Cuban tanker that was placed under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2019. Businesses dealing with entities blacklisted by Treasury may face fines and sanctions.

Mexico has traditionally maintained a close political and cultural relationship with Cuba, but since the leftist Morena party came to power under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican government has ramped up donations and subsidies to help Cuba at a time when economic support from Venezuela, the island’s closest ally, has decreased.

In 2023, the general director of Pemex, Octavio Romero, denied that the company was donating oil to Cuba after a lawmaker asked in a hearing about the risks of U.S. sanctions. In April, the company declared to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Gasolinas Bienestar had sent oil worth $1 billion to Cuba in 2024 and the last six months of 2023.

“Since July 2023, Gasolinas Bienestar, S.A. de C.V., our wholly owned subsidiary, acquires crude oil and petroleum products from certain of our affiliates for export to the Republic of Cuba,” Pemex said in the filing. The Mexican state oil company said it sent 16,800 barrels of crude oil per day and 3,300 barrels of petroleum products per day to Cuba between July and December 2023. In 2024, it sent 20,100 barrels of crude oil per day and 2,700 thousand barrels of petroleum products per day.

In 2023, the company reported losses similar to the value of the oil sent to Cuba and around 33 million Mexican pesos in profits in 2024, equivalent to only $162,051, suggesting Pemex either donated or sold the oil to Cuba at cost, according to data in an independent audit of Pemex’s financials. Pemex told the SEC that sales by Gasolinas Bienestar “are made under peso-denominated contracts at prevailing market rates. We have procedures in place to ensure such sales are carried out in compliance with applicable law.”

Diplomatic tensions with Mexico

Even if Pemex has not exported the $3 billion the anti-corruption group claims but a lower amount of oil to the island, the optics of extending a lifeline to the Cuban government at a time Washington is trying to tighten the screws on the regime in Havana might add tension to an already complex diplomatic relationship. Mexico has also hired around 800 Cuban doctors through the Havana government-run official missions, providing Cuban authorities with an additional source of revenue, estimated at around $109 million, between 2022 and 2025.

Still, the Trump administration has other priorities in its relationship with one of its most important partners in the region, including cooperation on immigration, the fight against drug cartels and tariff negotiations. So far, Sheinbaum has been able to navigate the delicate negotiations, and she is well-liked within the Trump administration.

This week, however, reports that the U.S. has canceled visas of dozens of Mexican officials have again put the spotlight on the tensions between the two countries.

The U.S. State Department did not say whether the exports of oil to Cuba or the hiring of doctors have come up in talks with Mexico. The agency also has not provided the number of Mexican officials whose visas were revoked, nor the reasons in each case.

“Visas are a privilege, not a right,” a senior State Department official told the Miami Herald. “Visas, including those held by foreign officials, may be revoked at any time. Reasons for revocation can include violation of U.S. law, overstays, corruption, drug trafficking, acting as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, espionage, aiding illegal immigration, and other activities that run contrary to America’s national interest.”

The senior the official said that the Trump administration “has had a good working relationship with the Sheinbaum government, and we look forward to continuing to advance our bilateral relationship in the interest of the America first foreign policy agenda.”

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