Gas Supply Disruptions Hit Havana's Municipalities Amid Maintenance Work

Residents of Havana faced both partial and complete interruptions in their gas supply this past Thursday due to maintenance efforts at the Energas plant in Puerto Escondido. This development was announced by the Manufactured Gas Company on their Facebook page.

The company stated that the maintenance work was essential to ensure the stability and quality of gas provided to the capital for household use, as well as for electricity production.

All municipalities in Havana receiving this service were impacted, although the official statement did not specify the number of households affected or the duration of the service disruption.

It was only mentioned that gas service pressures would gradually be restored in the hours following the announcement.

Meanwhile, several residents took to social media to voice their frustrations about experiencing over 24 hours without service before any official communication was made.

One local expressed their frustration: "The information comes too late when it could have been given in advance so people could prepare. Instead, we’re left to deal with the surprise of not having gas and figuring out how to cook. Terrible communication," she commented on the company's Facebook post.

Another resident was more blunt: "Couldn’t we have been informed yesterday or earlier today about these unavoidable maintenance tasks?"

The complaints extend beyond the lack of notice, highlighting the simultaneous failures that leave households with no cooking alternatives. Manufactured gas is a critical cooking resource independent of electricity, especially valuable during frequent blackouts. When both services fail, the situation becomes untenable.

"Without power and without gas, it feels like they want to finish us off," one neighbor remarked. Another added, "Without electricity, food spoils, and to top it off, you can't even boil water. How many incompetent people are running these crucial companies?"

One resident took it further: "It seems like companies providing essential services have a plan to make life impossible for Cubans. No water, no gas, no electricity. They coordinate these disruptions well, but can't manage to ensure electricity is available when they cut the gas."

These disruptions are not isolated incidents. In less than four months, the city’s network has experienced several significant outages: maintenance at Plant No. 1 in June, a "technical force majeure" in late June, valve calibration issues in late July, and a collector center breakdown in Canasí in the following month.

This decline in service coincides with a rate increase authorized by the Ministry of Finance and Prices' Resolution 156/2026, which nearly doubled the cost of manufactured gas from July 1st, raising the price from 2.50 to 4.97 Cuban pesos per cubic meter. For a family of three to five, this translates into a monthly bill of 298.20 pesos for 60 cubic meters.

The capital's network serves approximately 208,000 residential customers and about 3,844 non-residential clients across eight municipalities. As of the closing of this report, affected residents were still waiting for official information about when the service would be restored.