Matanzas

Matanzas province lies on Cuba's northern coast approximately 100 kilometres east of Havana. With a population of approximately one million, it is Cuba's third most populous province and an industrial and agricultural hub. The province hosts Varadero, Cuba's largest international resort zone, the Matanzas Bay industrial port, which is the primary Cuban oil-import terminal, and the former Supertanker Base, a major fuel storage facility badly damaged in a September 2022 explosion and fire that destroyed more than a million barrels of oil and killed at least 16 firefighters.

Matanzas Bay is Cuba's primary oil-import terminal and the intended unloading port for the Sovcomflot tanker Universal carrying 270,000 barrels of diesel from Russia. As of late May 2026 the vessel had been drifting offshore since its last AIS broadcast on 29 April at 2.2 knots, roughly 1,000 to 1,600 kilometres from Cuba, after OFAC General Licence 134B expired on 16 May with no Cuba-specific successor. The Camilo Cienfuegos refinery in Cienfuegos province, the downstream waypoint that processes cargo unloaded at Matanzas Bay, restarted on 17 April 2026 using Russian crude from an earlier Sovcomflot delivery. On 11 June 2026 OFAC designated CUPET, Cuba's state oil company, under EO 14404. CUPET controls all Cuban oil import licences, port customs, and purchasing infrastructure. The designation closes the private-buyer loophole that earlier Venezuela licences had theoretically created for Matanzas Bay, making any new cargo arrival legally inaccessible to Cuban buyers without a new authorisation. Matanzas was among the 8 provinces identified by the UN Resident Coordinator in April 2026 as having acute humanitarian needs.