A man cooks with firewood during a blackout in Havana on May 13, 2026. <\/p>\n
Yamil Lage | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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 \u2026 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>.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n De la O Levy said the country’s predicament is “extremely tense.”<\/p>\n According to Reuters<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n People walk on a street during a blackout in Havana on May 13, 2026.<\/p>\n Yamil Lage | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n De la O Levy warned Cuba has “no reserves” and that its national grid is in a “critical state,” the Guardian newspaper reported<\/a> separately. <\/p>\n 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\u00a0military operation<\/a>\u00a0to remove Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has called Cuba’s government “an unusual and extraordinary threat”, suggesting the White House could turn its attention to Cuba when the Iran war is concluded.<\/p>\n