Cuba struggles to ease power cuts amid reduced fuel supplies from Venezuela, Mexico

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By Marianna Parraga and Dave Sherwood

HAVANA (Reuters) -Cuba’s imports of crude and fuel in the first 10 months of the year fell more than a third compared with the same period of 2024 as key allies Mexico and Venezuela slashed supplies, according to shipping data and documents seen by Reuters, preventing the Caribbean country from easing daily power cuts. 

The Communist-run island relies on imported refined products to meet demand, including fuel oil and diesel for power generation, and jet fuel and gasoline for transportation. U.S. sanctions and a deep economic crisis have for years made it impossible for the government to buy enough fuel, forcing a growing dependence on allies.

Between January and October, Cuba’s oil imports from Mexico – which emerged as a reliable provider in 2023 after regularizing shipments of light crude – declined to some 5,000 barrels per day, a 73% fall from the 18,800 bpd received in the same period of 2024, according to the shipping data.

Imports of crude and fuel from Venezuela, Cuba’s most important political ally, fell almost 15% over the same period to 27,400 bpd, with the reduction particularly hitting supplies of fuel oil for power generation, internal documents from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA showed.     

In total, Cuba’s imports of crude, liquefied petroleum gas and residual and motor fuels from all origins fell 35% to some 45,400 bpd in January to October, from 69,400 bpd in the same period last year. 

Mexico and Venezuela are both dealing with output limitations and do not have much spare capacity to offer Cuba. Their lower availability of light crude and fuel oil for export, coupled with Cuba’s struggles to pay for purchases on the spot market, have put a ceiling on fuel imports.

Russia, a supplier that has helped Cuba in past crises, has only sent a couple cargoes of Urals crude this year, in line with last year’s supply, the data also showed.

PDVSA, Mexico’s state oil company Pemex, and the information ministries of Cuba and Venezuela did not reply to requests for comment.

LONG CUTS REACH HAVANA

Cuba’s government blames the fuel shortages, decrepit infrastructure and damage from Hurricane Melissa for worsening power outages, which are increasingly hitting the capital Havana, the country’s economic engine.

Almost 900 megawatts of power generation, nearly a third of daily demand, was shut down on Wednesday due to lack of fuel and lubricants, the country’s electrical union said.

In Havana, unplanned power cuts sometimes top nine hours daily. Many outlying provinces see just two to four hours of electricity a day, vastly reducing productivity and complicating daily life.

“The situation with the blackouts is awful, to say the least,” said 18-year-old university student Daniela Castillo. “We arrive home exhausted, there’s no electricity, and many times we have to wait for it to come back on – if it comes back on at all – so that we can eat, so we can study…?”

LESS SPARE CAPACITY

A traditional heavy oil producer, Mexico’s output of the Olmeca light sweet crude that fits the Cuban refineries’ diet is typically reserved for well-paying international customers, especially amid Pemex’s reduction of overall crude exports.

Pemex’s oil output fell almost 9% to 1.63 million bpd in January to September, from some 1.79 million bpd in the same period of 2024, while crude exports suffered a 23% cut in that period to 604,000 bpd, official data showed.

Venezuela faces a similar situation. Numerous changes in U.S. sanctions policies towards the OPEC producer have forced PDVSA to supply more crude and feedstock to its own refineries, limiting the volume and types of products PDVSA can export to Cuba.

PDVSA has reduced output of the residual fuel oil Cuba demands for power generation, internal company documents showed.

Flows are also being disrupted by a long-standing lack of sufficient vessels to move oil supplies from Venezuela and Mexico to Cuba, the data showed.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Dave Sherwood in Havana, additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City and Deisy Buitrago in Caracas; Editing by Nathan Crooks and Nia Williams)