LATE-STAGE COMMUNISM: Cuba struggles to ease power cuts amid reduced fuel supplies from Venezuela, Mexico.

Between January and October, Cuba’s oil imports from Mexico – which emerged as a reliable provider in 2023 after regularizing shipments of light crude – declined to some 5,000 barrels per day, a 73% fall from the 18,800 bpd received in the same period of 2024, according to the shipping data.

Imports of crude and fuel from Venezuela, Cuba’s most important political ally, fell almost 15% over the same period to 27,400 bpd, with the reduction particularly hitting supplies of fuel oil for power generation, internal documents from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA showed.

In total, Cuba’s imports of crude, liquefied petroleum gas and residual and motor fuels from all origins fell 35% to some 45,400 bpd in January to October, from 69,400 bpd in the same period last year.

Mexico and Venezuela are both dealing with output limitations and do not have much spare capacity to offer Cuba. Their lower availability of light crude and fuel oil for export, coupled with Cuba’s struggles to pay for purchases on the spot market, have put a ceiling on fuel imports.

Previously: Cuba’s power grid collapses again. Why does this keep happening?

The link goes to an NPR article that blames pretty much everyone and everything except for Cuba’s communist government.