Brigades from the Cienfuegos refinery, affiliated with Unión Cuba-Petróleo (Cupet), are progressing in the construction of a new segment of pipeline over four kilometers long to transport Cuban crude to the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant, reported this Saturday by the Canal Caribe of the official television.
The original project aimed to replace 3.3 kilometers of pipes that had been in use for decades and were highly deteriorated. However, just before the middle of June, an additional nearly 900 meters were added, bringing the total length to over four kilometers of the central system, which spans 11 kilometers connecting the refinery to the power plant.
At the time of the report, 1,935 meters of new pipes had already been joined with welds, and 240 meters had been installed in the trench, while 845 meters were still awaiting excavation.
Cupet executives emphasized that the work is being carried out without interrupting the fuel supply to the power plant. "In the areas where we have identified the highest number of faults, that is where we are making the replacements," stated one of the project managers.
The Carlos Manuel de Céspedes power plant requires an average of 1,600 cubic meters of crude oil daily for its thermal units.
Cupet specialists warned that transporting that volume by motor vehicles is "practically impossible" given the energy situation the island is facing.
A technician from the company emphasized that "this would provide greater operational security for the thermoelectric plant and improve the pumping rate. This means we could be pumping a larger volume than we do today," regarding the expected impact of the investment.
The work is set against the backdrop of the worst energy crisis Cuba has faced in decades. Since the Trump administration imposed secondary sanctions on countries that supply oil to Cuba through Executive Order 14380, signed on January 29, fuel imports have dropped by between 80% and 90%.
Venezuela cut its supply of subsidized oil by between 25,000 and 35,000 barrels daily following the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro, and Mexico suspended its shipments. Cuba produces only 40,000 barrels daily, compared to a demand of between 90,000 and 110,000.
The only recent relief was the processing of 100,000 tons of crude oil donated by Russia, the derivatives of which began to be distributed on April 19 across all provinces, although they barely covered a third of the national demand for a month.
The ruler himself, Miguel Díaz-Canel, acknowledged the seriousness of the situation in April with a widely circulated phrase: "There is almost no fuel".
The Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant, with an installed capacity of 316 MW, has experienced multiple breakdowns in 2025 and 2026, including a fire in block four in January 2025 and several outages of the electrical system throughout the year.
The revised schedule for the fixed investment sets the completion of the new pipeline for August 30.
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