US blocks Cuban tankers Gloria C and Emilia in widening oil-shipping sanctions
Five Cuban-flagged ships are now listed as blocked property, and Treasury has opened Cuba's marine sector to further designations
The US State Department has identified five Cuban-flagged ships as blocked property in an expanded sanctions package aimed at oil shipments to and from Cuba. The measures, announced on 5 November, designate eight entities and two individuals in all, and come with a Treasury determination that allows sanctions on foreign companies operating in Cuba's marine, manufacturing, electronics and technology sectors.
Cyprus-based Caroil Transport Marine, already sanctioned in 2019 under Venezuela-related measures, is the commercial manager of three of the ships: the crude tanker Esperanza and the chemical and products tankers Gloria C and Maria Cristina. Caroil owns Maria Cristina. Panama-based Tentacool Commercial, the registered owner of the 2010-built Gloria C, and Cuban company Internacional Maritima, which owns Esperanza, were also designated.
Which ships are new to the list?
Gloria C and the LPG carrier Emilia are newly listed. The other three were already sanctioned and have had their entries updated under Executive Order 14404. Maria Cristina and Esperanza were first blocked in 2019; Maria Cristina was previously listed as Carlota C, and the crude tanker Lourdes as Giralt. Cuba's Petróleos Marítimos del Caribe, known as Petromarca, was designated as the commercial manager of Emilia and Lourdes and the registered owner of Emilia.
The package also names Guillermo Faustino Rodríguez López-Calleja, whom Washington links to the network of companies moving petroleum products to and from Cuba, and Any Rodríguez Lastres, former commercial director of the Mariel container terminal, designated as the adult daughter of the previously sanctioned president of Grupo de Administración Empresarial, GAESA. The remaining targets are the Cuban state companies Cubaelectrónica and Tecnosime, and two Chinese firms, China National Electronic Import and Export Company and Beijing H&C Technologies, which the US accuses of supplying military equipment to Cuba.
Designated parties' property under US jurisdiction is blocked and US persons are generally barred from dealing with them. The State Department's fact sheet says existing authorisations for humanitarian trade in food, medicine and medical devices remain in place. Cuba depends on imported fuel and has suffered repeated shortages and power cuts, so the listings add a further obstacle to financing, managing and operating the ships that serve the island.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 9 November 2026.
