Federal officials are expected to join law enforcement officers along Galveston Bay this week as a huge oil tanker arrives after being seized by the US military off the coast of Venezuela, and the ultimate loser may be Cuba.
Such ships are referred to in the energy industry as "supertankers," or Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC), this one carrying about 1.85 million barrels of Venezuelan crude -- that's a lot of oil, and it's already setting off alarm bells in Cuba.
The communist-run island nation just 90 miles off the coast of Florida has not only been a nemesis and tormentor of the United States but has also recently been in a major crisis, barely able to come up with enough money and fuel to run its electrical grid, and the Cuban state company called Cubametales was expecting to receive a big part of the crude oil shipment to resell it to Asian intermediaries in exchange for much-needed cash.
The tanker was headed for Cuba when it was taken over by the US, according to the New York Times, and the loss of income to the island could be catastrophic.
Venezuela has been sending 27,000 barrels of crude and fuel to Cuba each day this year, according to records maintained by the PVSA, Venezuela's state-run oil company.
Cuba needs the money because the island is facing a severe economic crisis, with public service infrastructure failing, rolling blackouts, widespread food shortages and increasing unemployment, not unlike the persistent economic challenges faced by Venezuela itself.
The two nations have been strengthening their ties the past few years, but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has long wanted to cripple the government of Cuba, and one way to help do that is to slow down or stop the struggling nation's huge care packages from other nations during this time of crisis.
