Cuba's Energy Crisis Deepens Amid U.S. Tariffs
Cubans are struggling with blackouts and fuel rationing amid President Trump’s campaign to provoke regime change by choking off the energy supply of the island nation, which is heavily dependent on fuel imports.
Trump last month threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sends oil to Cuba, labelling the island “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security. He noted the Cuban government’s relations with Russia, China, and Iran as evidence of that threat, which, Trump suggested, would present as “migration and violence.”
The island’s biggest oil supplier was out of the picture already, since that was Venezuela, and the United States effectively took control of the country’s oil industry following the ousting of President Nicolas Maduro.
Cuba’s second-largest oil supplier, Mexico, initially took a tough stance, with President Claudia Scheinbaum saying the country would continue supplying oil to Cuba because “It’s not right. They don’t have fuel for hospitals or schools. The people are suffering.” However, Kpler data shows that no oil cargoes arrived at Cuban ports in January. Indeed, earlier this week, President Scheinbaum said Mexican oil shipments to Cuba were suspended as the country’s government looked for ways to provide fuel for the island without triggering Trump’s wrath and tariffs.
Russia has said it would continue supplying oil to Cuba, but it would take a while for any evidence to emerge of this. Meanwhile, airlines are starting to suspend flights to Cuba because of jet fuel scarcity.
Air Canada was the first to issue a warning about flights to Cuba, followed by two more Canadian airlines. The Cuban Aviation Corporation confirmed the shortage, saying it would suspend refueling services for aircraft for a month. Yet air transport is only one aspect of Cuba’s energy crisis.
Time reported this week that the tight fuel supplies are causing rolling blackouts and affecting hospitals. The publication cited Cuban media as reporting that some medical facilities had had to cancel surgeries and outpatient transfers. Shortages of medical supplies and even antibiotics are also being reported.
France 24, meanwhile, reports that Cubans are turning to charcoal for cooking and to solar panels for electricity generation, even though both are quite expensive for the average Cuban. The Cuban government has responded to the oil blockade by reducing office hours and restricting fuel sales. The government is also closing tourism facilities and reducing transport between provinces, Al-Jazeera reports.
“Fuel will be used to protect essential services for the population and indispensable economic activities,” Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva said on Cuban state television. “This is an opportunity and a challenge that we have no doubt we will overcome. We are not going to collapse.”
Among the measures that the government is also taking is directing fuel supplies to food-producing regions and considering state support for solar power adoption. Those fuel supplies, however, will run out in less than a month, with Venezuelan and Mexican oil gone. Venezuela accounted for 33% of Cuba’s fuel imports last month, according to data cited by Al-Jazeera, while Mexico was the top supplier, with 44%. Russia supplied 10% of Cuba’s total fuel imports.
Demand for oil on the island, which has been under a total U.S. embargo since 1959, averages around 100,000 barrels daily. Cuba produces some oil, but it is not enough to meet its demand. With Venezuelan and Mexican oil gone, the risk of a total energy collapse in the country becomes a distinct possibility—either that or the government will give in to U.S. demands. For now, officials have not suggested this is an option and have instead called for dialogue.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com