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The Manufactured Gas Company announced this Wednesday a complete shutdown of its production plant number one from 9:00 PM on Thursday, June 4, until 5:00 AM on Friday, June 5, which will leave five municipalities in Havana without service for eight hours.
According to the official advisory, "during this time, service will be completely affected in the Havana network, which includes the municipalities: Old Havana, Central Havana, Cerro, Diez de Octubre, and Plaza de la Revolución."
The company justified the measure as "unavoidable maintenance work" aimed at "ensuring the stability of the gas service provided in the capital."
The work includes the replacement of sections in two outgoing lines from the plant that distributes gas to the Havana network, as well as the installation of valves in the production facility.
The number one plant, known as Melones, is supplied with natural gas from the Jaruco wells through an underground pipeline of 25 kilometers and has a nominal capacity of approximately 40,000 cubic meters per hour.
This interruption reflects a recurring pattern. In 2025, there were at least four similar shutdowns in the capital's network, all at night and of short duration, consistently affecting the same five municipalities.
In August 2025, a total shutdown for pipe replacement was announced at the Mario Fortuny plant, affecting Playa and Marianao. Meanwhile, in November of that year, the dates for another gas outage at the ENERGAS plant in Puerto Escondido were rescheduled.
The impact of each interruption is significant given the energy context that Cuba is experiencing. The capital's network serves about 208,000 customers across eight municipalities, and manufactured gas has become a critical service due to the acute shortage of liquefied petroleum gas.
Of the 1.7 million liquefied gas customers nationwide, about 834,000 were unable to acquire it during the distributions in April 2026, which means that any interruption in the manufactured gas network directly affects the cooking capacity of hundreds of thousands of residents of Havana.
The Cuban government has promoted the expansion of manufactured gas as an alternative to power outages and the shortage of liquefied gas, with a goal of 25,000 new customers by 2026 in Havana.
However, by the end of March, only 735 homes had been connected under this plan, a number far below the official target.
The company apologized for the inconveniences and reminded that "these works aim to improve the quality and safety of the service provided to the public," although the frequency of the interruptions highlights the structural deterioration of an infrastructure that potentially serves only 16% of the residents of the capital.
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