Cuba Faces a New Fuel Crisis

Cuba is facing its second fuel shortage in seven months and the lines are getting longer around the gas stations in Havana.

“If you can find gas, then you’re wasting a wonderful time waiting, because the lines can go around the block,” Michael Sanchez, a young driver who waited 10 hours to put gas in his car in Havana, told AFP.

On Wednesday, the Cuban Oil Union (Cupet), a state-owned company, announced “a deficit in the availability of fuel” and “difficulties” in delivery.

“Due to logistical operational difficulties and higher than usual demand, there has been a deficit in the availability of fuel in the national territory,” the agency said in a statement posted on Twitter Wednesday.

The company said that the refinery in Cienfuegos, in the center of the island, already has “the necessary raw material for the production of gasoline and other products”, as well as the support of other public transport companies “to stabilize the supply”.

Cuba, facing its worst economic crisis in nearly 30 years due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and Washington’s sanctions, experienced similar hardships last March, without basic health services, food production, water supply and
waste are affected by it.

In August, a huge fire at an oil depot in the suburb of Mantanzas, 100 kilometers east of Havana, killed 17 people and caused $100 million in losses in burned fuel alone, according to official figures.