Cuban President announces measures to deal with conjunctural fuel shortage

The President of Cuba’s Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and ministers appeared on the Mesa Redonda television program, last night, to report on measures being taken to address the current energy situation

Author: Digital news staff | informacion@granma.cu
september 12, 2019 10:09:53

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Tomada de la televisión
The President of Cuba’s Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and several ministers appeared on the Mesa Redonda television program, last night, to report on measures being taken to address the current energy situation and inform the population .

The Ministers of Economy, Alejandro Gil Fernández; of Energy and Mines, Raúl García Barreiro; of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila; and First Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa participated, as well.Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez began by explaining , “We want to inform without frightening or causing fear. We are making known something that we had warned of earlier, this is the responsibility of the Council of Ministers, which has the duty to announce these new challenges.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Tomada de la televisión
We want to report what is happening, its causes, how we have worked in these months to minimize the impact, and the options we have to overcome this conjunctural situation.”… It is well known that the current U.S. administration is increasing its hostilities towards Cuba, with the aim of hurting the basic needs of the people and their daily activities and blaming the Cuban government for this,” pressuring us to change the course we have chosen as a country.

“…They persist in trying to prevent the arrival of fuel to Cuba. And additionally apply unilateral measures to limit our contracts with shipping companies that deliver resources to Cuba. There are entities that have withdrawn.“…This situation has caused a shortage of diesel.”

“…Ships with food are arriving in the country, ships with wheat flour, and this is a result of measures that have been adopted recently.”Díaz-Canel explained that this scenario forces us to adopt measures to minimize the impact on services to the population and focus on priorities, stressing that this is a conjunctural situation.

National industry guarantees 40 percent of the country’s fuel, and with this domestic production, we guarantee the operation of our thermoelectric plants. That is, the fundamental basis of the country’s energy system remains stable, the President stated.

All measures adopted have had positive results. However, despite the effort, the arrival of oil tankers was not achieved these last few weeks. In this situation there are two important moments. One is the one we currently experiencing, that will last until September 14, because fuel will not arrive until that date. On the 14th, a tanker will arrive.

The next shipments arrive at the end of September. We must maintain conservation and efficiency measures so that this fuel lasts until the end of the month, when the other vessels arrive and stabilize the situation. October contracts are negotiated. We are sure that fuel will be guaranteed at the end of September, and with the October contracts, Díaz said.