A tanker carrying fuel originally bound for Cuba on Friday changed its destination to Trinidad and Tobago, according to LSEG ship-tracking data, a blow for the island amid a severe fuel scarcity that has triggered power blackouts.

The Hong Kong-flagged vessel Sea Horse loaded a diesel cargo earlier this year through a ship-to-ship transfer in the Mediterranean before setting sail to the Caribbean.

The Russian-origin cargo was bound for Cuba, according to several maritime intelligence firms, but the ship had suspended course in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean since late February.

The tanker has changed course and is heading south to Trinidad, with an estimated arrival on Monday, according to the LSEG data.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday changed the terms of a waiver it had granted to sales of Russian-origin crude and petroleum products already loaded on tankers to specifically exclude transactions involving North Korea, Cuba and Crimea. The license is part of the Trump administration's effort to tame high crude and gas prices amid the Middle East conflict.

Russia's state-run TASS news agency said this week the Russian government is in talks with Cuba about aid options, without providing further details.

Power blackouts are now the norm in Cuba, which has received only two tankers at its ports this year, bringing oil, LSEG data showed.

The Communist-run island needs imported fuel oil and diesel to generate power and avoid more outages, while gasoline sales remain strictly rationed and sold on the black market for $8 per liter, six times the official price.

(Reuters)