- Title: Is Cuba running out of fuel? It's not clear
- Date: 13th February 2024
- Summary: BEJUCAL, MAYABEQUE, CUBA (FEBRUARY 8, 2024) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) CAR LIGHTS ILLUMINATING STREET AS PEOPLE WALK DURING A BLACKOUT PEOPLE USING MOBILE PHONES TO ILLUMINATE STREET VARIOUS OF VEHICLES DRIVING ON DARK STREET CUBAN ENTREPRENEUR, GERMAN MARTIN, CLIMBING THE STAIRS OF HIS BUSINESS ILLUMINATING HIS PATH WITH LAMP MARTIN ILLUMINATING ROOM WITH LAMP (SOUNDBITE) (S
- Embargoed: 27th February 2024 10:57
- Keywords: Cuba blackout electricity fuel
- Location: BEJUCAL, MAYABEQUE & HAVANA, CUBA / AUSTIN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES
- City: BEJUCAL, MAYABEQUE & HAVANA, CUBA / AUSTIN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES
- Country: Cuba
- Topics: South America / Central America,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001995612022024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: At a small cafeteria outside Havana, in Bejucal, owner German Martin organizes his life and business around regular blackouts. It's not easy.
He says sometimes the power goes out for four hours, other times six, unusual for the time of year, when cooler weather normally means lower demand and fewer outages.
The reason for this latest inconvenience, according to government officials, is a lack of fuel. The problem is now affecting nearly all facets of daily life on the communist-run island.
As cafeteria-owner Martin's situation suggests, the country's national grid is running deficits approaching one-third of total demand - the most dramatic in more than a year - leading to hours-long blackouts across much of the island.
Despite official reports, a Reuters tally of fuel produced on the Caribbean island and delivered to its ports tells a different story.
Cuba’s economy demands about 125,000 barrels per day, according to the most recently available 2021 data from its Office of Statistical Information (ONEI).
Cuba produces around 40,000 barrels a day from domestic wells, and has received approximately 57,000 barrels a day from Venezuela.
Together with an estimated 23,000 barrels a day from Mexico, and around 7-10,000 barrels per day in purchases on the spot market, that's enough to cover domestic consumption, according to a review of shipping data. Cuban government officials did not reply to a Reuters request to explain the discrepancies.
Jorge Piñon, who studies Cuba's energy infrastructure and supply at the University of Texas at Austin, says the missing link is not supply, but rather, a problem on the island that the government has not fully disclosed.
The country's national grid director, Lazaro Guerra, said Monday (February 12) the country was still facing a "large deficit" in production due to lack of fuel - and noted that all of its generating plants, from small diesel motors to large oil-fired plants were detained by the shortages.
Blackouts have once again become a regular feature across much of the country, and particularly, outside the capital Havana.
Cuba's government has proposed as a solution a five-fold increase in heavily-subsidized fuel prices in order to raise the funds it needs to purchase larger quantities.
(Production: Alien Fernandez, Carlos Carrillo, Anett Fuentes, Nina Lopez) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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