May 14 (UPI) -- Cuban Energy Minister Vincente de la O Levy said the country's diesel and fuel oil stocks had run completely dry and that the energy system was on life support due to the oil embargo imposed by the United States in January.
"We have absolutely no diesel," O Levy said in an interview broadcast on state-run national television Wednesday night in which he repeatedly stated that oil stocks to generate power for the electrical grid were pretty much exhausted too.
O Levy said that a lone delivery of 730,000 barrels of oil gifted by Russia in March had run out and the national grid was now completely dependent on Cuba's home-produced crude oil, natural gas and renewable energy.
"In Havana, the blackouts now exceed 20-22 hours [per day]. The situation is very tense, it's becoming hotter," he said, referring to surging demand for energy with the arrival of summer on the island.
In a post on X on Wednesday evening, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel blamed a 2,000 megawatt electricity shortfall overnight and 1,100 megawatts that could have been produced during the day had the fuel to generate it been available to power stations on a "criminal siege."
