Cuba nearly doubles fuel prices as stations stay shut amid shortage

Gasoline and diesel nearly doubled at the pump in Cuba, but many filling stations in Havana were still largely closed, turning a price hike into a sign of scarcity rather than relief. The new fuel rates took effect on May 15, after the Ministry of Finance and Prices announced earlier in the week that they were meant to better reflect the actual import costs of gasoline and diesel.

The timing said everything. Fuel had already been all but disappearing from state-run stations for roughly two weeks before the new pricing scheme began, so the higher retail numbers landed on drivers and transport operators just as access was drying up. A man on a motorcycle waiting to fill up captured the basic problem: people were lining up for fuel that often was not there.

The shortage is broader than a few closed pumps. On May 14, Vicente de la O Levy, Cuba’s Energy and Mines Minister, said the country had no remaining diesel or fuel oil. That matters because diesel and fuel oil are not just transport fuels in Cuba; they also feed the power system. The shortages have fed into an electricity crisis that has already left Havana with rolling blackouts lasting 20 to 22 hours in some areas.

The human pressure is growing along with the fuel bill. In April, the United Nations’ top official in Cuba said humanitarian needs remained “quite acute and persistent,” and the UN said the impacts of the energy shock had worsened since the end of March. That is the backdrop for a policy shift that is supposed to make pump prices follow import costs, but in practice is landing in a market where public stations cannot reliably open and supply remains severely constrained.

Cuba has also been moving toward variable and more dollarized fuel pricing, a sign that authorities are trying to manage scarcity with pricing tools instead of steady supply. But a higher price only works as a rationing mechanism when fuel is actually moving through the system. In Havana, the opposite was visible: nearly doubled prices, shuttered stations, and a fuel shortage that is still hitting transport, deliveries and everyday movement first, then spreading outward to the rest of the city.