May 14 (UPI) --Cuban Energy Minister Vincente de la O Levy said the country's diesel and fuel oil stocks had run completely dry and that the energy system was on life support due to the oil embargo imposed by the United States in January.
"We haveabsolutely no diesel," O Levy said in an interview broadcast on state-run national television Wednesday night in which he repeatedly stated that oil stocks to generate power for the electrical grid were pretty much exhausted too.
O Levy said that a lone delivery of 730,000 barrels of oil gifted by Russia in March had run out and the national grid was now completely dependent on Cuba's home-produced crude oil, natural gas and renewable energy.
"In Havana, the blackouts now exceed 20-22 hours [per day]. The situation is very tense, it's becoming hotter," he said, referring to surging demand for energy with the arrival of summer on the island.
In apost on Xon Wednesday evening, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel blamed a 2,000 megawatt electricity shortfall overnight and 1,100 megawatts that could have been produced during the day had the fuel to generate it been available to power stations on a "criminal siege."
"This dramatic worsening has a single cause: the genocidal energy blockade to which the United States subjects our country, threatening irrational tariffs against any nation that supplies us with fuel," Diaz-Canel wrote.
The comments came as Havana and Washington traded claim and counterclaim over purported behind-the-scenes U.S. offers to provide $100 million in assistance that the Cuban government claimed it was unaware of, with the State Department formally reiterating Wednesday that its offer was still on the table.
Ina news release, the State Department said Cuba had rebuffed repeated private offers of financial assistance made by the United States, including support for free and fast satellite internet.
"The regime refuses to allow the United States to provide this assistance to the Cuban people, who are in desperate need of assistance due to the failures of Cuba's corrupt regime. Today, the Department of State is publicly restating the United States' generous offer to provide an additional $100 million in direct humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people that would be distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and other reliable independent humanitarian organizations," the news release said.
The State Department added that the decision lay with the Cuban government to either accept the offer or be accountable to the people of Cuba for blocking them from receiving "critical living-saving aid."
Source: Drudge Report
