{"id":113829,"date":"2026-04-08T22:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=113829"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T16:34:16","slug":"cuba-in-a-dire-strait-as-oil-reserves-would-last-for-only-07-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=113829","title":{"rendered":"CUBA In A Dire Strait As Oil Reserves Would Last For Only 07 Days."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Havana; April 2026<\/strong>: Cuba needs petroleum to generate and supply electricity to its citizens. Its thermoelectrical plants, fed with fuel oil and diesel, use twice as much fuel as all other uses combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insufficient crude for refining and a lack of fuel imports led to multiple grid failures in recent months, leaving the country\u2019s 10 million people in darkness. Most Cubans, including those in the capital Havana, were seeing 16 or more hours of \u200bblackout daily even before the first grid collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents across Havana lined up for water from tank trucks in March \u200bas the combination of fuel shortages and power \u200cgrid instability left thousands of taps dry. State water utility Aguas de La Habana confirmed that pumping schedules and supply operations \u200bhad been disrupted by the lack of \u200belectricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blackouts triggered a rally against power cuts, while food shortages began in the \u200ccity of Moron due to the lack of fuel for transportation. In a rare outburst of public dissent, anti-government protesters had attacked a Communist Party office in central Cuba on March 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is extremely worrying is the fact that Cuban health officials have asserted that the crisis has increased the mortality \u2060risk for cancer patients, especially children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuba\u2019s Use Of Petroleum By Activity (Data, in barrels of oil, averaged from 2019-2023)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Respective Verticals<\/td>Million Barrels<\/td><\/tr>
Electricity, gas and water supply<\/td>2.95<\/td><\/tr>
Mining and quarrying<\/td>0.44<\/td><\/tr>
Manufacturing industries (except sugar)<\/td>0.25<\/td><\/tr>
Population<\/td>0.24<\/td><\/tr>
Transport, storage and communications<\/td>0.17<\/td><\/tr>
Construction<\/td>0.08<\/td><\/tr>
Sugar industry<\/td>0.08<\/td><\/tr>
Agriculture, livestock and forestry<\/td>0.06<\/td><\/tr>
Trade and repair of personal effects<\/td>0.05<\/td><\/tr>
Business services, real estate and rentals<\/td>0.01<\/td><\/tr>
Public administration<\/td>0.01<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the late March of 2026, the United States allowed a Russia-flagged tanker to deliver some 700,000 barrels of crude to Cuba, breaking a hardened oil blockade that had left the Caribbean country without fuel for months. However, the new shipment is expected to barely provide 7-10 days of supply, or roughly through mid-April, according to official estimates and past import averages. The Russia contributes almost 25% of the total Cuban requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is noteworthy that Cuba\u2019s energy is imports dependent. Since the island produces less than a third of the oil it requires, it relies on regular purchases of crude and fuel. Venezuela and Mexico, Cuba\u2019s main oil suppliers, have struggled in recent years to maintain motor fuel production, leaving little spare capacity for Cuba, particularly in 2025. Cuba\u2019s struggles to pay in cash have also limited imports. Venezuela was Cuba\u2019s top oil supplier for more than 20 years, accepting services like doctors and government security instead of cash payment for cargoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela\u2019s last shipment to Cuba was in December 2025, as on 03rd January 2026 \u2013 the United States had captured President Nicolas Maduro, and subsequently imposing a trade embargo on Venezuela ceding all fuel transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2026, a small shipment arrived from Jamaica. The blockade has choked off Cuba\u2019s supplies of oil, which is the effective lifeblood of the country. Cuba\u2019s dependence on oil is not unique in the Caribbean, but the scale of that dependence is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Cuba is in a tougher spot than its neighbours Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, which have managed to offset their petroleum needs with coal, natural gas and renewables over the past several decades, while Cuba has not done so under the longstanding U.S. trade embargo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuba\u2019s energy consumption, compared to its neighbours, remains almost wholly focused on petroleum \u2014 it easily surpasses the region\u2019s average and is significantly more dependent than either Mexico or the U.S., which are both countries that almost match their petroleum consumption with natural gas, and round out their needs with smaller portions of coal, nuclear and renewables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy Consumption Sourced From Petroleum And Other Liquids<\/strong>.<\/td><\/tr>
Country \/ Region<\/td>Percentage<\/td><\/tr>
Cuba<\/td>87%<\/td><\/tr>
Jamaica<\/td>75%<\/td><\/tr>
Dominican Republic<\/td>61%<\/td><\/tr>
Central & South America<\/td>54%<\/td><\/tr>
Mexico<\/td>47%<\/td><\/tr>
United States<\/td>38%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Americans need to let us live a little, let us breathe\u201d, said Havana resident Ismael de la Luz, 67 years, adding further, \u201cit was the people, not the government, suffering \u200bmost from the blackouts and shortages. We\u2019re in a really bad way\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of women marched in Cuba\u2019s capital, Havana, to protest the de facto oil blockade and pressure campaign that the United States has imposed on the island. Banners and signs at Tuesday\u2019s demonstration bore the slogan \u201cTumba el bloqueo\u201d or \u201cTear down the blockade\u201d. Many protesters waved Cuban flags, and some wore T-shirts with the hashtag #NoMasBloqueo or \u201cNo more blockade\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Maverick<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Havana; April 2026: Cuba needs petroleum to generate and supply electricity to its citizens. Its thermoelectrical plants, fed with fuel oil and diesel, use twice as much fuel as all other uses combined. Insufficient crude for refining and a lack of fuel imports led to multiple grid failures in recent months, leaving the country\u2019s 10 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":113830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[81],"post_format":[],"flags":[],"class_list":["post-113829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113831,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113829\/revisions\/113831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/113830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113829"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_format&post=113829"},{"taxonomy":"flags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fflags&post=113829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}