MADRID, Spain — The United States has drastically revised its fuel export figures for Cuba for July 2026. According to the corrected records, the island received 182,932 barrels of petroleum products from the U.S. market, rather than the 3.22 million barrels initially reported by U.S. authorities.
The revised figure represents a reduction of approximately 94.3% from the previously published amount and substantially changes the scale of U.S. petroleum supplies to Cuba.
The correction was disclosed on October 15 by the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, following revisions made by the U.S. Census Bureau on October 14.
One of the most significant errors involved a shipment recorded as departing from the Port of Miami, whose volume was revised from 2,530,802 barrels to just 87,753. Another shipment from the same port was corrected from 496,677 to 87,341 barrels, while a shipment from Tampa, initially recorded at 57,638 barrels, was reduced to 4,798.
Taken together, the adjustments place U.S. exports of petroleum products to Cuba during July at 182,932 barrels.
The difference is substantial: while the previous statistics suggested an average of approximately 103,900 barrels per day during July, the corrected figures amount to roughly 5,900 barrels per day.
The original figures had been released on September 30 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and were subsequently reported by the press.
According to journalist David Adams, cited by 14ymedio, the discrepancies may have originated from errors in completing export declaration forms, with quantities expressed in liters or gallons mistakenly recorded as barrels. However, the official information concerning the corrections does not conclusively establish the cause of each error.
Dollar Values Remained Unchanged
Despite the reduction in reported volumes, the monetary value of exports for July remained unchanged at $61.1 million.
The figure of $74.8 million for August also remained unchanged, representing a 22.4% increase over the previous month.
Therefore, the corrections affect the recorded physical quantities of fuel but, so far, do not invalidate the previously reported trade values.
The errors were not limited to July. The revisions also cover transactions recorded in March, April, May, June, and August 2026.
In June, for example, a shipment of heavy oils exported from Miami was revised from 365,103 to 56,896 barrels, although its declared value remained unchanged at $9.1 million.
In August, another shipment from Miami was reduced from 310,753 to 127,471 barrels, with no change to its declared value of approximately $23.8 million.
Fuel exports to Cuba are conducted under specific exceptions to U.S. regulations, which authorize certain transactions intended for eligible private businesses and individual consumers.
However, public export records do not necessarily identify the buyers or ultimate recipients of the shipments. Consequently, they do not make it possible to determine what proportion of the fuel ultimately ends up in the hands of Cuban state entities.
