By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
Cuba has seen in recent days, the biggest protests in decades as thousands of people took to the streets in the Communist-run country to demand freedom. But they also protest against the severe economic crisis and power outages. The pandemic exacerbated a crisis that has been brewing for years due to the U.S. sanctions against Cuba and, more recently, American sanctions against Cuba’s staunch ally, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. The crumbling Venezuelan oil industry means that less fuel oil from the country sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves is reaching Cuban shores to power the old power plants on the island.
Cuba’s power generation is heavily dependent on oil products – according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Cuba’s energy supply mainly comes from oil products, which account for more than 80 per cent of power generation.