A man cooks food with wood during a blackout in Havana on May 13, 2026.
Yamil lage | AFP | getty images
Cuba has run out of oil and diesel, Cuba’s energy minister said on Wednesday, as the island nation faces fuel shortages due to the ongoing US blockade.
“The sum of the different types of fuel: crude oil, fuel oil, of which we have none at all; diesel, of which we have none at all… The only thing we have is gas from our wells, where production has increased,” Cuban Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said on state media, according to the broadcaster. BBC.
The US blockade has blocked oil shipments to the country since January, causing blackouts of up to 22 hours a day in parts of the Cuban capital Havana.
De la O’Levy said the country’s plight was “extremely tense”.
according to reuters The news agency, which has reporters on the ground in Havana, began protests in the city on Wednesday evening, with hundreds of people gathering in the streets, blocking roads with trash and shouting “turn on the lights.”
People walk on the street during a blackout in Havana on May 13, 2026.
Yamil lage | AFP | getty images
De la O Levy warned that Cuba has “no reserves” and that its national grid is in “critical condition”, according to the Guardian newspaper. informed separately.
Cuba was heavily dependent on Venezuelan oil, but the Communist-run Caribbean island has been effectively cut off since early January when the US launched a military campaign to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The Trump administration has called the Cuban government “an unusual and extraordinary threat”, suggesting that the White House may turn its attention to Cuba once the Iran war ends.
In a true social Post On Tuesday, Trump said that there would be talks between the US and Cuba, but without giving information about when the talks would take place.
“Cuba is asking for help and we’re going to talk,” he said ahead of his visit to China.
The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it is ready to provide Cuba with $100 million in aid, adding that Washington “continues to seek meaningful reforms to Cuba’s communist system.”
“It is up to the Cuban regime to decide whether to accept our offer of assistance or refuse critical life-saving assistance, and ultimately to be accountable to the Cuban people for standing in the way of critical assistance,” the statement said.
— CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this report.