Cuba says oil and diesel supplies have run dry under U.S. sanctions

A man cooks with firewood during a blackout in Havana on May 13, 2026. Yamil Lage | Afp | Cuba has run out of oil and diesel, its energy minister said on Wednesday, as an ongoing U.S. blockade starves the island nation of fuel. "The sum of the different types of fuel: crude oil, fuel oil, of which we have absolutely none; diesel, of which we have absolutely none … the only thing we have is gas from our wells, where production has grown," Cuban Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said on state media, according to broadcaster the BBC . A U.S. blockade has blocked shipments of oil into the country since January, prompting blackouts lasting up to 22 hours a day in parts of the Cuban capital Havana. De la O Levy said the country's predicament is "extremely tense." According to Reuters news agency, which has reporters on the ground in Havana, protests broke out in the city on Wednesday evening, with hundreds crowding the streets, blocking roads with garbage and shouting "turn on the lights." People walk on a street during a blackout in Havana on May 13, 2026. Yamil Lage | Afp | De la O Levy warned Cuba has "no reserves" and that its national grid is in a "critical state," the Guardian newspaper reported separately. Cuba had been heavily dependent on oil from Venezuela, but the communist-run Caribbean island has effectively been cut off since early January when the U.S. launched a military operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. …