Cuba suffers daily, hours-long rolling backouts that have decimated productivity and tested the patience of its exhausted residents.
A US move this week to seize an oil tanker out of Venezuela is poised to make a bad situation worse for a crisis-stricken Cuba already struggling to source enough oil to power its ailing economy and electric grid.
The Communist-run nation, a nearby neighbour in long-time foe of the United States, suffers daily, hours-long rolling backouts that have decimated productivity and tested the patience of its exhausted residents.
According to shipping data and analysts, Cuba depends on Venezuela's crude and refined products - transported to the island by small vessels and a shadow fleet of sanctioned tankers - for a large portion of its consumption.
That supply chain, critical to keeping the lights on in Cuba, could be severely curtailed if the single tanker seizure this week turns into a pattern of interceptions, coupled with more sanctions.
Sources familiar with the matter said this week that Washington, which on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on six Venezuelan-related vessels, is planning in the coming weeks more interceptions of tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.
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