Cuba is suffering from power outages. They concern – according to local media – up to half of the country's territory. Two tankers with a total cargo of 126,000 tons of diesel oil arrived there on Saturday, independent Cuban media reported. Although the shipment comes from ports in Denmark and the Netherlands, Russia is responsible for sending it. “It is believed that this transport, estimated at $81 million, was paid for with a loan from Russia,” reported the independent Cuban website 14ymedio.
As Cuban Radio Marti recalled, the Russian authorities announced at the beginning of November that they would send fuel to the island to deal with the energy crisis there. The Kremlin then declared that it would support the authorities in Havana with a loan for the purchase of at least 80,000 tons of diesel oil.
Power outage in Havana, CubaPAP/EPA/Ernesto Mastrascusa
The tankers come from Liberia and Germany
According to the findings of the Cuban media, the first tanker to reach the port of Matanzas, in the west of the island, was the Liberian-flagged ship “Corossol”. It set off on a cruise to a Caribbean island from Rotterdam on November 4, filled with 88,000. tons of fuel.
The second cargo of diesel fuel was delivered to the port of Matanzas by the German Seamarlin. It sailed towards Cuba from the port of Skagen, Denmark, on November 4 with a load of 38,000 tons of fuel.
Havana. Power outage. Photo from October 18PAP/EPA/Ernesto Mastrascusa
For several weeks, Cuba has been immersed in energy paralysis due to interruptions in the operation of the country's main power plant, Antonio Guiteras, in Matanzas. As a result of power outages lasting several days, there is also a lack of running water in some regions of the island.
Half of Cuba is drowning in darkness
About 50 percent of Cuba's territory has been left without electricity as a result of the energy crisis on the island, Cuba's Radio Marti reported on Saturday evening local time. The station established, based on conversations with residents of individual regions of the island, that long-term electricity shortages occur, among others, in: in the provinces of Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba and Havana.
According to Radio Marti, power cuts have been going on in several towns on the island for several days, which – as the station reported – “intensifies the dissatisfaction of the population there.” She specified that electricity shortages led to widespread water and internet shortages on the island.
Since October, there have been regular outages at Cuba's main Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas, in the west of the island. The authorities of the company responsible for the distribution of electricity, UNE, claim that the widespread power outages at this power plant in recent days are the result of technical failures in power plants.
As of Sunday, as declared by the UNE management, the power plant in Matanzas is to fully resume operation after renovations that have been ongoing since Tuesday.
Main photo source: PAP/EPA/Ernesto Mastrascusa