People line up for gas in Havana, Cuba, March 21, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Stringer

Geobel Quintero, a program coordinator for the Matanzas provincial government, told local media that rationing had begun in that province on Sunday but downplayed the problem, blaming the shortfall primarily on distribution issues.

“This is not a consequence of a fuel deficit in the country,” Quintero told state-owned provincial newspaper Giron. “This is a temporary problem.”

Quintero said in the report that state-run company Transcupet, which provides fuel to the country´s service stations, was working with only 62% of its delivery trucks. Logistical issues had hampered distribution, the report said.

Word of the rationing spread quickly through the neighboring province of Havana, where the remaining fuel was quickly snapped up Sunday, leaving little gas and diesel available at stations in Havana on Monday.

“I´ve been here since 7 this morning and now its 11:30, four hours,” said Jorge Paez, 53, a self-employed worker waiting in a nearly kilometer-long line to fuel up his Soviet-era motorcycle and sidecar. “This is a situation that repeats itself every three months … and the problem is never resolved.”

The Cuban government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Officials in Cuba have previously blamed the decades-long U.S. embargo and more recent, severe sanctions under former U.S. President Donald Trump for complicating foreign imports of fuel to the island.

Cuba´s ailing fuel supply is also a function of declining domestic production, limited refining capacity and reliance on ally Venezuela, which is suffering production problems of its own, according to Jorge Piñon, a professor and energy policy expert at the University of Texas at Austin.

“Cuba’s current fuel challenge is as a result of low refinery production and their inability to purchase (with cash) gasoline and diesel in the international oil markets to supplement their Venezuelan oil deliveries, due to high oil prices,” Piñon said.