The Camilo Cienfuegos Refinery began distributing this Saturday in all provinces of Cuba the derivatives obtained from processing 100,000 tons of crude donated by Russia, which the regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel presents as a "solidarity relief" amid the worst energy crisis the island has faced in decades. According to reports on the distribution of the fuel donated by Russia, the logistical operation covers the entire national territory.
The products obtained from processing include gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, and liquefied petroleum gas, which are transported from Cienfuegos to Pinar del Río and Guantánamo by trucks, trains from the Unión de Ferrocarriles de Cuba, and Cuban ships.
However, the authorities themselves acknowledge that the donation barely covers about a third of the national demand for a month, highlighting the extent of the structural collapse of the Cuban energy system.
The refinery had remained shut down for about four months before becoming operational again with Russian crude, and the refining process lasts between 12 and 15 days continuously.
"The plants are not designed to be idle; they are designed to operate continuously, 24 hours a day," acknowledged Irenaldo Pérez Cardoso, deputy director of the Union Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET), in statements to Canal Caribe.
Diesel and fuel oil will be primarily allocated to distributed electricity generation, while liquefied gas aims to partially alleviate cooking needs in Cuban households, a problem that has forced many families to resort to makeshift alternatives, she said.
Pérez Cardoso described the supply as "an important breath of fresh air amidst the imposed energy blockade," although he admitted that "the liquefied petroleum does not meet the current demand of the country, but it is undoubtedly a relief to sustain the needs of our critical infrastructure, hospitals, and detention centers."
The crisis has deep roots that the regime refuses to acknowledge: Cuba needs between 90,000 and 110,000 barrels of oil daily but only produces about 40,000, and for decades it relied on external subsidies to cover the gap.
The first Russian shipment arrived on March 31, when the tanker Anatoly Kolodkin docked at the port of Matanzas with 730,000 barrels of crude oil, the largest shipment received by the island in almost three months, which only covered between seven and ten days of consumption.
The energy blockade was completed on January 29, 2026, when Trump signed Executive Order 14380 on January 29, declaring Cuba an "unusual and extraordinary threat" and imposing secondary sanctions on countries that supplied oil to it, which caused Mexico to suspend its crude shipments to the island.
Before that, the Venezuelan supply of between 25,000 and 35,000 subsidized barrels per day had already been interrupted following the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, leaving the regime without its main source of energy.
The result has been devastating for the population: blackouts of up to 25 hours daily affecting 63% of the territory, a generation deficit exceeding 2,000 megawatts, 96,000 pending surgeries, and more than a million people without stable access to water, according to estimates from the UN.
Díaz-Canel admitted last Wednesday that Cuba has "absolutely almost no" fuel, a confession that contrasts with the triumphalist discourse with which the regime presents Russian aid as an ideological victory.
Meanwhile, a second Russian tanker, the Universal tanker crossed the English Channel on April 8 escorted by a Russian frigate and is expected to arrive in the Caribbean by April 29, as confirmed by Russian Foreign Minister Serguéi Lavrov last Tuesday from China: "I have no doubt that we will continue to provide this assistance".
The dependence on Russian donations to sustain essential services reveals the failure of an economic model that has lasted 67 years without being able to guarantee energy for its own population, and that now requires Moscow to escort its oil tankers so that the Cuban people can turn on a light bulb.
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