Bicycle transport, Havana, Cuba, March 3, 2026. Photo: EFE Bicycle transport, Havana, Cuba, March 3, 2026. (Photo: EFE)

Cuba has gone over 3 months without fuel shipments: Diaz-Canel

By teleSUR Desk (Posted Mar 14, 2026)

Originally published: teleSUR English on March 13, 2026 (more by teleSUR English)  |
Empire, Inequality, State Repression, StrategyAmericas, Cuba, United StatesNewswireCuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Oil, U.S. Cuba Blockade

On Friday, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel provided an update on his country’s energy situation with a figure that summarizes the magnitude of the crisis caused by the U.S. oil blockade.

“It has been more than three months since any fuel ship has arrived in our country. We are working under very adverse conditions that have an immeasurable impact on the lives of all our people,” he warned, adding that his administration is implementing measures to respond to a prolonged blockade.

Regarding the chain of blackouts that have occurred in recent days, Diaz-Canel offered a technical explanation that places the crisis in its structural context.

During the day, Cuba generates electricity with photovoltaic solar energy–which covers between 49% and 51% of demand during hours of highest irradiation–and with associated gas from domestic crude oil extraction. At night, however, the national energy system depends exclusively on thermoelectric plants and gas.

Until last week, Cuba had reserves of diesel and fuel oil in two facilities used for distributed generation: the Moa engines and the Mariel engines. After three months without fuel imports, those reserves have been exhausted.

“The generation system stopped providing a considerable number of megawatts that we used during peak hours and at night,” the Cuban president explained, indicating that this destabilized the frequency of the national electric power system and triggered blackouts.

“Fuel is needed for thermoelectric plants to start up and synchronize with each other,” Diaz-Canel said, noting that Cuba managed to overcome a total blackout but the national system remains on the verge of another collapse due to the availability of only minimal fuel reserves.

He also revealed another figure that summarizes the current energy problem: Cuba has more than 1,400 megawatts of recovered distributed generation available and ready to operate but inactive because of the absence of fuel.

“If we had fuel available, we would have an additional 1,400 MW for electricity supply at night,” he said, noting that the installed capacity would make it possible to reduce the nighttime energy deficit by up to 700 MW, which would be enough to lessen the impact on the population.

Instability in the frequency of energy supply also creates a chain effect that explains why blackouts exceed planned levels. This occurs because when a substation experiences problems, several circuits fail simultaneously.

“People criticize us because we are not able to fix the blackout. However, what happens is that the blackout increases due to situations that were not planned,” Diaz-Canel said, noting that energy instability forces authorities to modulate the daytime connection of photovoltaic parks in order to regulate the system’s frequency.

“We cannot take advantage of the full power generated by photovoltaic parks because we must regulate–with more or less connection–the frequency of the national electric power system to avoid another blackout,” he said.

Despite all the restrictions Cuba is facing, authorities have managed to introduce a new mechanism that allows solar energy to be used to regulate system frequency under unstable conditions and reduce the risk of total outages. On Monday, government ministers will explain the technical details of that new mechanism.

Sources: Cuban goverment

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