MIAMI, United States. – News agency Reuters informed this Tuesday about Cuba’s difficulties in meeting the domestic demand of fuel this year to date, a crisis that is aggravated by a decrease of oil shipments from Venezuela.
According to the British news agency, the Caribbean island is battling against a diesel and gas deficit amidst a decrease of shipments from its political ally, Venezuela.”
Although more than 75% of the fuel that Cuba receives keeps coming from the South American country, the 22,000 daily barrels of oil (B/D) that it received in the first quarter of 2022 are far less than the 44,000 barrels it received during the same period in 2020, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Reuters, the situation is due to “problems” that Venezuela has faced “to produce refined products for its own needs,” which has forced Caracas to limit its oil subsidy to Havana.
The agency indicates that the Cuban regime imported approximately 70,000 B/D of crude and fuel during the first quarter of this year, an insufficient supply for the Caribbean country. Cuba needs at least 100,000 B/D to meet normal domestic demand.
Fuel shortage in the island has created thwarted the distribution of fuel, as well as caused frequent blackouts in every province in the country.
The Cuban regime has tried to justify the new energy crisis by alleging damages to the main thermoelectric plants in the island, among them the Antonio Guiteras, in Matanzas, and the Lidio Ramón Pérez, in Felton, Holguín.
Blackouts were one of the detonators of the social upheaval on July 11, 2021, a situation that could repeat itself if the Cuban authorities don’t succeed in reducing the number of blackouts, now that summer weather is around the corner.
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