After the announcement days ago by the deputy prime minister Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fragawhich opened the door to the purchase of fuels in the international market in the midst of the US oil blockadeseveral MSMEs are already activating procedures based on the requirements to start imports.
During the television program Round Table last February 6Pérez-Oliva Fraga assured that the Government is “facilitating and authorizing any company that has the possibility of acquiring fuel to buy it.”
Although up to now there has been no official statement detailing the bulk of the relevant operations for the purchase of diesel or gasoline abroad, the MSME Sonicarpa SRL yesterday disclosed the requirements that would be required to authorize the import.
The requirements
According to the publication, applicants must present a microlocation certificate issued by Physical Planning with the exact coordinates of the warehouse, in addition to the fire safety certification (ACPI) granted by the Fire Department.
Then follows the metrology endorsement with the capacity and standardization of the so-called isotanks when the storage is carried out in facilities leased to state entities.
A formal declaration is also required from the MSME stating that the fuel will be used for its own consumption, in addition to the lease, cooperation or storage contract for the tank if it belongs to the state sector.
According to Sonicarpa SRL, eThe procedure would be channeled through the importers Quimimport (dedicated to the import and distribution of high quality chemical products) and Maprinter (exporter, importer and marketer of raw materials and intermediate products) in Havana, with approval of the corresponding regulatory authority.
However, doubts still remain about the volumes that will be authorized, in what currency and at what price.
Relieve the oil blockade
The measure comes as a lifeline in the face of the acute fuel crisis that has largely paralyzed the country since the beginning of the year. who has been forced to ration fuelreduce public services and prioritize essential activities in sectors such as health, water service and defense.
Enterprises where fuel is a basic input are already suffering a severe impact. Transportation businesses such as boat drivers or MSMEs for interprovincial distribution of goods now see their daily operations seriously affected.
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State transportation services are also practically inoperative, while private transportation services have decreased considerably, as far as possible. find out OnCuba days ago in conversation with a group of transporters.
“The situation is very critical, we do not have fuel to work with, the tank that supplies us is not entering either, they are not going to sell any more in American dollars and there are practically no cars. I have enough to work today, but I don’t have any for tomorrow, and that’s how we all are,” confessed one of the taxi drivers who was waiting for clients in the El Curita park, in Central Havana.
The suspension of free fuel sales It cuts off formal access to the resource, which has led to very high prices for gasoline and other energy carriers on the black market.
The zero hour
In conversation with the Spanish newspaper The Country published on saturday Jorge Piñón, researcher at the Energy Institute of the University of Texas, USA, warned that “if by mid-March we do not see a tanker on the horizon, Cuba will have reached zero hour.”
Judging by their calculations, in line with other international ones, the country needs about 100 thousand barrels per day to sustain basic electricity and transportation services, but national production barely covers 40 thousand. The rest depended on shipments from Venezuela, Mexico and Russia.
“The last ship that brought crude oil to Havana was the Ocean Mariner, which loaded 85 thousand barrels from Mexico and docked on January 9,” he recalled. Supplies have since been disrupted. “The situation in Cuba is extremely critical,” he emphasized.
The expert stressed that the island lacks strategic reserves and storage capacity: “It has always lived up to date with oil.”
Cooking gas and diesel from the US
Amid the tensions, familiar sources revealed to the british magazine The Economist that the US Government would be considering sending “small quantities of fuel” to Cuba, despite the current oil blockade.
According to sources, these shipments would not be crude oil, but “gas for cooking and diesel to maintain the water infrastructure”, thus alleviating the current energy crisis in the Caribbean country would be minimal.
Even so, if these shipments materialize—and are accepted by Havana—they would be a palliative to the critical social situation on the island after years of economic decline now aggravated by the pressure of the US Government on Cuba after the attack on Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
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