Eco Fleet Finally Sets Sail from Cuba to Jamaica with 40,000 Tons of Diesel After Weeks of Waiting

Havana/ The ship Eco Fleet headed elsewhere and arrived in Jamaica this week after almost 50 days of waiting a few miles from the port of Havana without being able to unload its 40,000 tons of diesel from Tunisia. The cargo ship arrived in Kingston after more than a month and a half of waiting near the coast of the Island, according to what she warned 14 intervene the expert from the University of Texas, Jorge Piñón.

The Tunisian tanker sailed, for weeks, in circles in front of the port of Havana, perhaps waiting for payment to unload its 260,000 barrels of diesel. The cargo ship, which left Tunisia on February 7, remained in Cuban territorial waters “waiting to enter and unload,” Piñón warned at the time. Finally the ship headed south and was seen this Monday in the Jamaican port.

The Eco Fleet is not the only one who has been in that situation for weeks. On March 22, the count amounted to nine ships waiting to dock in Cuban ports, including bulk carriers. Eco Tide and Hydra Down plus a few others.

Last week, finally, the Balsa 88 and the Federal Nagara, two cargo ships that spent weeks bumping around the Island, were finally in Havana. Both were part of the group of ships that could not enter port due to non-payment, according to the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, who blamed this on the financial consequences of the embargo.

“Until now you didn’t have the money to pay for the cargo? Did you have technical problems with the ship?”

In this sense, the incessant transfer of smaller tankers to supply the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant in Felton was also observed in Nipe Bay (Holguín). At the beginning of last week, a total of 165,000 tons of fuel was being shipped aboard the Potion –loaded in Venezuela–, the Share, the Lourdes and the Marianne VV all of them from Matanzas.

Last March, Piñón recalled that the Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, had mentioned – without revealing its name or origin – a “ship with 40,000 tons of diesel” that would arrive to the Island “in these days” (alluding to the end of February).

Piñon argued then that it was the Eco Fleet. “Until now they didn’t have the money to pay for the cargo? Did they have technical problems with the ship? Quality problems with the diesel?” the expert asked. Someone will have to pay for the delay, he insisted, although – as usual – it is known that the Island Government will not be transparent with the management.

After 50 days of doubts, the enigma of Eco Fleet has been cleared and its load has not ended up feeding the precarious energy network of the Island.