It has to be one of the more unusual sale-and-purchase deals ever reported.
The Cuban government has revealed it was forced to buy a tanker after the owner refused to dock with a fuel cargo due to the fear of incurring US sanctions.
The move was explained by transport minister Eduardo Rodriguez live on Cuban state television on Wednesday night.
Rodriguez refused to name the vessel or when the deal had taken place.
Cuba is suffering a fuel shortage and relies on Venezuelan crude for its needs.
However, the minister did not confirm the shipment had arrived from Venezuela.
"We have reached the point where we had to buy a ship near our shore — buy the ship because the owner refused to dock with the fuel on board," he said.
"We have had to buy the ship with money from the limited financial resources at our disposal in our country to be able to buy this fuel."
Cuba produces only 32% of the fuel it uses to generate electricity. The other 68% must be imported, mainly from Venezuela.
Imports falling
However, these imports have fallen due to US sanctions.
The US is trying to pressure the Caribbean island to stop supporting the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In December, the US sanctioned more tankers connected to Venezuela's oil company, PDVSA.
The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control added six ships to the blacklist after the tankers allegedly shipped 1.3m barrels of oil to Cuba in the autumn.
The sanctioned ships were the 99,438-dwt Icaro (built 1993); the 47,144-dwt Luisa Caceres de Arismendi (built 1996); the 47,144-dwt Manuela Saenz (built 1997) and the 104,554-dwt Paramaconi, 104,736-dwt Terepaima and 104,579-dwt Yare (all built 2011).
According to the Treasury Department, PDVSA invoiced also-sanctioned Cuban state oil importer Cubametales for the shipments. The money was then transferred into a Russian bank account.
The department also updated its listing for the former 61,328-dwt Nedas (built 2005) to reflect that it had been renamed the Esperanza. The Caroil Transport Marine-connected ship was blacklisted in April over alleged dealings with Venezuela and Cuba.
