India, March 21 -- Cuba is preparing to receive its first shipment of Russian oil this year, just days after the Government announced it was operating on natural gas, solar power and thermoelectric plants as severe power outages continue to hit an island whose power grid is crumbling.

The Russian-flagged Anatoly Kolodkin is some 3,000 nautical miles from Cuba in the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to reach the island in 10 days, Jorge Pinon, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute, told The Associated Press.

If so, that would mark the first time any oil shipment from any country reaches Cuba in the past three months, given a US energy blockade. The tanker is carrying 7,30,000 barrels of fuel and is on the list of vessels of...