Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTReutersTue, August 11, 2026 at 12:18 PM GMT+2 7 min readHAVANA, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Gasoline at $38 a gallon sold from cramped apartments. Diesel hawked on Instagram by a celebrity model to a reggaeton soundtrack. Six decades after Fidel Castro's revolution, all of a sudden, capitalist cracks are appearing in Cuba's communist energy sector.Under Washington's crippling oil embargo against Cuba, an exception that allows U.S. firms to export fuel to private Cuban businesses has kickstarted a chaotic black market and pried the lid off an energy sector tightly controlled by the state ever since Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House.Oil shipments from Cuba's traditional suppliers Venezuela and Mexico ended abruptly after the U.S. ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. U.S. Coast Guard cutters patrol the waters off Cuba, while sanctions and threats have dissuaded tankers from even setting sail.The embargo has hobbled essential state-run services like the healthcare system, public transport and schools. But under the Commerce Department exception, a trickle of gasoline and diesel is reaching private restaurants, retailers and taxis, the first significant landings of U.S. fuel on the Caribbean island since Castro nationalized refineries after the 1959 revolution.Reuters could not determine which U.S. companies are shipping fuel to Cuba, but there is no sign major oil traders are involved.Some is resold on the black market, allowing those who can afford it to keep gas in their tank and in home generators, blunting the impact of a collapse in public transport, the rolling blackouts, and, by powering home pumps, the country's faltering water distribution system.While providing some relief, the new system is sharpening wealth disparities. On a recent July afternoon in Havana, Amarilis Sanchez, 53, waited for hours at a bus stop. She'd come to celebrate her daughter's birthday but now had little faith that the bus to return home, which normally cost 2 pesos, would ever arrive.Across the street, dozens of taxi drivers leaned against antique cars. Ismael Coutiño, one of the drivers, said he could take Sanchez, but the trip would cost 1,000 pesos, he explained, 500 times as much as the bus, because of the black market price of gasoline and diesel, which many Cuban vehicles run on.For Sanchez, who does not have a paid job, that was far out of reach. She said her plan was to sit there until it grew dark and, if the bus never arrived, sleep at her daughter's house and wait for the bus again the next day.BACKROOM DEALS AND SOCIAL MEDIA ADSTerms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info