Cuba has run out of diesel and oil. This is the message from the country's Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O, according to the Reuters news agency in a speech.
- We have absolutely no fuel (oil, ed.) and absolutely no diesel.
- We have no reserves, he says.
The message comes during a blockade that the United States has imposed on the country. It has led to the worst power outages in Cuba in decades. US President Donald Trump imposed the blockade at the beginning of the year after the US military captured Venezuela's then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Venezuela was Cuba's most important oil supplier for a long time. It is no longer Venezuela, and this has hit Cuba hard.
This week and last week, power outages have increased dramatically in the capital Havana. Many areas are without power for 20 to 22 hours a day, the minister said, according to Reuters. This has increased tension in the city, which is already short of food, fuel and medicine.
Large share of renewable energy is lost
Cuba has installed 1,300 megawatts of solar power over the past two years, but a large part of that capacity is being lost due to instability in the electricity grid in the midst of the energy crisis. This reduces the efficiency and production of solar energy, the minister says.
Vicente de la O says that despite the blockade, Cuba is negotiating to import oil. However, the rising global oil and transportation prices in the wake of the war between the US and Iran are further complicating the effort, he points out.
- Cuba is open to anyone who wants to sell us fuel, says Vicente de la O.
Neither Mexico nor Venezuela have sent fuel to the island since Trump signed a decree in January that threatened to impose tariffs on any country shipping fuel to Cuba.
Only one large oil tanker from Russia has delivered crude oil to Cuba since December. This happened in April and meant that the island's almost ten million inhabitants could breathe a sigh of relief for a short period.
The communist authorities in Cuba have been on the opposite side of the United States for seven decades. The poor island state has close ties with Russia, among other things.
The UN has condemned Trump's blockade and called it illegal.
/ritzau/
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