Caribbean & Central America - March 2026

Amid Cuba’s intensifying energy crisis an unglamorous piece of everyday transport equipment, the ISO tank, has jumped into the centre of attention.

ISO tanks are stainless steel insulated containers which can be used to carry gases and liquids. A 20-foot container can carry 6,900 gallons of diesel fuel (about 26,100 litres). They can be transported on water by container ships or hauled by trucks on land. They are particularly useful in the current stage of Cuba’s economic crisis, where small private sector companies use diesel-powered trucks to transport food and other supplies from the port of Mariel in Havana to restaurants and small grocery stores in various parts of the country.

According to the Miami Herald, amid reports that the US administration led by President Donald Trump is prepared to allow the Cuban private sector to import diesel from US companies, everyone is talking about how to obtain and use ISO tanks. In theory such use of ISO tanks by Cuba’s small private sector could attract additional, vitally needed foreign exchange, and take some pressure off the wider state-controlled economy.

The background is that the island’s energy crisis is grinding on relentlessly. Since the US seized and extracted Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026) in early January, and then threatened Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum with increased tariffs, both countries have cut off their oil supplies to Cuba. Cuba needs 110,000 barrels per day (bpd), with low domestic production covering only around 40,000 bpd of that according to state mouthpiece Granma. That leaves a gap of around 70,000bpd, normally supplied by Venezuela. But now, with Venezuela out of the picture for conventional shipments, and with no-one else willing to step in, Cuba is forcibly rationing and reducing its consumption.

It shows. At the beginning of March there was another massive electric power failure triggered by breakdowns at various diesel-burning power plants. The outage also affected water pumps, shutting down residential water supplies. The government has acknowledged an “acute fuel shortage” and taken measures to restrict fuel sales to the public, impose a four-day week in the public sector, cut school hours, reduce university attendance, and limit regional bus and train services. Various commercial airlines have suspended flights to Cuba after the authorities said they could not guarantee aviation fuel supplies.        

The energy crisis has had a mixed impact in the dominant public sector. While most state enterprises suffer cutbacks, an elite group of military-controlled companies, known as Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA, (Gaesa) benefits from special treatment. Gaesa has interests in tourism, petrol stations, supermarkets, money transfers, and the Mariel Special Development Zone. An investigation of its finances last year by the Miami Herald found that at one point it had at least US$18bn worth of hard currencies in its accounts – more than the foreign reserves of a number of Latin American countries. The conglomerate appears to be tax-exempt; its 2023 profits are said to have been equivalent to 40% of Cuban GDP according to a January 2026 report by the Herald.

While it may reasonably be argued that state-owned Gaesa could do more to tackle the energy crisis, the spread of ISO tanks seems to be opening another potentially more modest private sector pathway to recovery. At the end of February, the US Treasury Department said it would authorise companies seeking licences to re-sell Venezuelan oil to the Cuban private sector. Such transactions, it said, would need to “support the Cuban people, including the private sector”.

Political manoeuvring

The US government is keen to stress that the private sector could play a key role in opening up wider negotiations with regard to the situation in Cuba. Richard Herrero of the non-partisan Washington-based Cuba Studies Group was cited by the New York Times as saying “The strategy here is to show the Cubans and the world that the only lifeline Cuba has left is the United States.”