By Lucia Kassai | Updated on Jun 12, 2026 at 09:01 PM
A Florida oil trading house that was set to dispatch the largest US fuel shipment to Cuba since 1960 is shelving plans after the Trump administration ramped up pressure on the island.
Vanguard Energy said “operational constraints” on the island nation have forced the company to suspend plans to ship 250,000 barrels of fuel by tanker, according to a statement Friday. If it had gone ahead, the cargo would have been the biggest delivery of US fuel to Cuba since the Eisenhower administration.
The announcement followed a US government decision to blacklist state company Unión Cuba-Petróleo, known as Cupet. The island has been plunged into the worst energy crisis since the late Fidel Castro took control more than half a century ago as the Trump administration increases the pressure on the communist regime.
“Recent US governmental actions affecting Cuban state entities have created operational constraints outside Vanguard’s control that now impact the ability to structure any future tanker-based fuel deliveries,” Vanguard President Matthew Klann said in the statement.
Vanguard said it had entered into a leased storage tanks in Cuba from an entity associated with the government to facilitate distribution of fuels to humanitarian groups, embassies and other non-state customers. The agreement was contingent to the company obtaining all US authorizations. The company had been sending fuels to Cuba since the start of the year in smaller lots in so-called iso-tanks, which are steel cylinders mounted inside shipping-container frames.
Vanguard said it hasn’t engaged in any unauthorized shipment, payment or transaction involving Cuba, or violated US sanctions, export-control or trade regulations, according to the statement.
The company also said the Miami-Dade County tax collector on Thursday reinstated its local business tax receipt a day after it was revoked in response to the sanctions on Cupet.