A Florida energy trading firm called Vanguard Energy is in advanced negotiations to ship roughly 250,000 barrels of fuel to Cuba. If completed, it would be the largest US fuel cargo sent to the island since 1960, back when Eisenhower was in the White House.
To put the scale in perspective: US fuel exports to Cuba’s private sector totaled about 30,000 barrels across all of 2026 so far. This single shipment would multiply that figure more than eightfold.
What’s actually happening
Matthew Klann, President of Vanguard Energy, has confirmed the company is expanding its Cuban operations beyond the smaller gasoline and diesel shipments it previously executed. The firm has secured storage tanks on the island to accommodate the target volume.
Earlier shipments this year moved via container ships departing from Florida and the Gulf Coast. Those were modest deliveries to Cuba’s private sector. The 250,000-barrel deal represents an entirely different scale of ambition.
