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The platform elToque published an infographic this weekend with the fuel prices in the Cuban informal market, and the reaction from internet users was unanimous: the issue is not knowing the price, but finding the product.
According to the data from May 22, the informal market records these ranges:
- the B-94 Special gasoline is priced between 3,500 and 4,800 CUP per liter
- the B-90 Regular between 3,100 and 4,300 CUP
- the B-83 Motor between 3,500 and 3,700 CUP
- diesel prices between 1,500 and 2,000 CUP (with a decrease of 5.3%)
- LP gas at 40,500 CUP per cylinder.
Those figures, however, fall short compared to what the Cubans themselves report from their provinces.
«In Holguín at several locations in the city, gasoline is at 6,000 CUP», wrote a user in the comments of the post. «In Las Tunas, the liter of gasoline is at 6,000 pesos», confirmed another.
Irony dominated the thread of comments. "The beautiful prices... what we don't know is where that gasoline is," summarized one user. Another was more straightforward: "One question: Has anyone other than a boss seen any liter of gasoline from the Russian ship Anatoly?"
The answer is straightforward: no. The Anatoly Kolodkin brought 730,000 barrels of crude oil that docked in Matanzas on March 31, enough for just nine or ten days of national demand.
That shipment ran out in early May, and since then Cuba has not received any other significant deliveries. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, admitted this bluntly on May 14: “Absolutely no fuel, no diesel, just accompanying gas”.
The great hope was the Russian tanker Universal, carrying about 250,000 barrels of diesel on board, but this Sunday the vessel accelerated from 1.3 knots to 10.5 knots and changed course towards the South Atlantic, distancing itself from Cuba with an unknown destination.
Jorge Piñón, researcher at the Energy Institute of the University of Texas, confirmed the shift to CiberCuba.
"After more than thirty days in limbo, the Universal has made a clear change in course, heading into the South Atlantic, far from Cuban shores. The final destination is still unknown," he noted.
A commentator summarized the fuel crisis in Cuba with the only practical recommendation that seems to remain: “I’ll say it again, buy bicycles”.
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