Cuba seeks to ease power shortages with support for Mexican oil 'national blackouts'

Cuba, which suffers from severe power shortages due to fuel shortages and aging energy facilities, is seeking to ease severe power outages with Mexican oil.

The Cuban-flagged ship "Billma," carrying about 400,000 barrels of crude oil, is leaving the port of Paharitos in Mexico for Cuba, Reuters reported, citing financial intelligence firm LSGE data.

Recently, Cuba has provided a certain portion of its crude oil, which was mainly imported from Venezuela, from Mexico.

This is because Venezuela, which has become difficult to meet domestic demand, has reduced oil exports to Cuba since last year, adversely affecting the Cuban fuel shortage.

In the nine months of this year, Venezuela's oil exports to Cuba remained at half the level of the same period last year, Reuters said, according to ship monitoring data.

On the other hand, the amount of crude oil sent from Mexico to Cuba from January to September this year has already exceeded the scale of a year last year.

In Cuba, the already unstable electrical grid was hit hard by Hurricane Oscar, which killed the eastern part of the island this month, plus a shortage of crude oil, leading to power outages across the country for more than a week from the 18th.

To minimize energy consumption, the Cuban government implemented emergency measures last week, including the closure of schools and the suspension of non-essential businesses for a week.