Seven units of generation They are out of service in Cubaincluding unit 3 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Thermoelectric Plant, in Cienfuegos, which stopped due to lack of fuel, which means that the blackouts will increase on Wednesday. This, while a Cuban ship loaded with Petroleum sets sail from Mexico.
According to Jorge Piñón, director of the Energy Program for Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Texas, the tanker Vilmabelonging to the Cuban military business conglomerate, GAESA, and under US sanctions, “sailed from the Mexican port of Pajaritos on Tuesday at 11:06 UTC, loaded with approximately 400,000 barrels of Mexican light crude oil.”
The expert told DIARIO DE CUBA that this load is an estimate calculated from the ship’s draft. He added that, Although the Vilma “has not yet indicated a destination,” it must head “to Havana or Cienfuegos.”
This editorial team checked through the satellite monitoring site Vessel Finder that the ship is sailing and must arrive at a destination not yet specified on Friday, June 14.
The Vilma arrived at the anchorage adjacent to the Pajaritos petrochemical complex, located in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruzand belonging to the state-owned PEMEX, on May 27th. Its arrival in Mexico, from where oil had not been sent to the Island since last March, would mean the resumption of the supply of hydrocarbons from the neighboring country to Havana.
Oil exports from Mexico to Cuba, which were the lifeline for the Island during 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, stopped during the third month of 2024. In this period, that country became the second supplier of crude oil to the Island, only behind Venezuela, whose regular shipments are increasingly less abundant.
The Energy Program for Latin America and the Caribbean of the University of Texas registered 32 ship trips from Mexican ports to Cuba starting March 22, 2023, bound for Havana, Moa, Cienfuegos, Matanzas and the port of Pastelillo, in Nuevitas.
Havana used US-sanctioned GAESA tankers in this transfer, such as the Delsa and the Esperanza, in addition to the Vilma and others owned or leased by Mexico.
Although it is unknown how Havana pays for these shipments, which generated contradictory statements from Mexican government officials, with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador describing them as donations and the president of PEMEX denying it, their suspension occurred after the report of a drop in the oil company production.
The probable arrival in Cienfuegos of the Vilma’s cargo would occur after the state Electrical Union (UNE) report to that, apart from unit 3 of the Cienfuegos Thermoelectric Plant, 41 generation plants are out of service due to lack of fuel distributed. This means 381MW stopped generating.
Likewise, unit 6 of the Mariel Thermoelectric Plant is in breakdown; 6 in Renté and 2 in Felton, while 1 in Santa Cruz del Norte is under maintenance; 5 in Nuevitas and 5 in Renté.
National electricity demand, higher than 3,000MW per day almost all during May, would be above that figure on Wednesday at most, while generation would reach 2,320MW, for a deficit of 680MW, which at peak hour would rise to 750MW.
The authorities have reported that in the early morning hours of recent days they have been able to satisfy demand and avoid blackouts due to generation deficits, but the truth is that The capacity of the national electrical system is not capable of meeting the high demand that occur in periods of high temperatures, typical of the Cuban summer.
Havana has been meeting its fuel demand thanks to some shipments of oil from Russia, arriving since April, as well as through purchases in various markets and regular shipments from Venezuela. Despite this, The outage of its thermoelectric plants generated extensive blackouts in March and April, which lasted up to more than 20 hours a day. in some locations on the Island.
