A breakdown at the Canasí collector center left seven municipalities in Havana without manufactured gas supply this Monday.
The Manufactured Gas Company of CUPET reported that the incident occurred on Sunday afternoon at the facilities of the Canasí field, located in Santa Cruz del Norte, Mayabeque, operated by its Drilling and Oil and Gas Extraction Company.
The malfunction "reduced the flow of natural gas to the power generation plants in the western part of the country and to the production facilities in Havana," which resulted in a significant decrease in the volume available for producing manufactured gas.
The municipalities without service are Habana Vieja, Centro Habana, Plaza de la Revolución, Cerro, 10 de Octubre, Playa, and Marianao.
CUPET promised to restore the supply "by the morning hours of Tuesday, August 11" and assured that its teams are working "continuously" alongside the extraction company to expedite the repair.
The Canasí collection center is a critical node in the Cuban energy system. It has the capacity to process up to one million cubic meters of natural gas per day. It also supplies the power plants of Puerto Escondido and Boca de Jaruco.
A breakdown at that point not only disrupts domestic gas supply in the capital but also impacts the already deteriorated electricity generation in the western part of the country.
The interruption is particularly serious because manufactured gas —commonly known as "street gas"— is the only cooking alternative for many residents of Havana during long blackouts, which in 2026 have reached 20 hours a day.
The service, delivered through underground pipes that do not depend on electricity, serves approximately 208,000 residential customers across eight municipalities in the capital.
This is the fourth significant interruption of service in less than three months. In June, there was a scheduled shutdown of Plant No. 1 for the replacement of sections and valves, followed by a breakdown due to a "technical unforeseen event of force majeure" at the end of that same month.
On July 30, CUPET announced a complete shutdown of both plants for maintenance of an automatic control valve, which left all seven municipalities without gas for six hours.
The recurrence of breakdowns is compounded by the discomfort caused by the increase in rates. Resolution 156/2026 nearly doubled the price of the service, from 2.50 to 4.97 Cuban pesos per cubic meter, which for a family of three to five people translates to a monthly bill of 298.20 pesos for 60 cubic meters.
Just two days before this new breakdown, the Havana residents reacted with concern to the new rates that came into effect this month.
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