Cuba has completely run out of diesel and fuel oil, the country’s Energy and Mines Minister said on Wednesday (May 14, 2026), as the capital Havana faces its worst rolling blackouts in decades amid a U.S. blockade that has strangled the island of fuel.
“We have absolutely no fuel (oil), and absolutely no diesel,” Energy Minister Vicente de la O said on state-run media, adding that the national grid was in a “critical” state. “We have no reserves.”
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Blackouts have increased dramatically this week and last across the capital Havana, with many neigbhorhoods without light for 20 to 22 hours a day, the minister said, heightening tensions in a city already exhausted by food, fuel and medicine shortages.
The national grid, he said, was operating entirely on domestic crude oil, natural gas and renewable energy.
