Fire recorded at a Havana refinery has already been controlled

Havana.- The fire recorded this Friday at the facilities of the Ñico López refinery, in Havana, was controlled by the capital’s fire department without any significant damage or injuries being reported so far, according to official media.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines assured on social media at around 4:20 PM local time (8:20 PM GMT) that the fire was brought under control a little over an hour after it started. For his part, the director of the facility, Maikel David Cabrera, told state media that the incident occurred in a warehouse of “disused” chemical products and that the “flames did not reach any fuel depot” nor did they spread to other areas.

Cabrera added that the refinery is working normally after the incident. For the moment, the Cuban authorities have not reported the causes of the fire.

The Ñico López is one of Cuba’s three refineries. It is an old energy facility that was nationalized in 1960 and has the capacity to process both heavy domestic crude and imported oil.

You may be interested in: Russia will materially help Cuba despite the «pressure» from the United States

However, this infrastructure has been plagued by technical problems for years. Furthermore, its proximity to densely populated areas has been warned about, with the associated risk, and the impact of its discharges on the bay’s ecosystem.

The fire occurs during the energy crisis in Cuba

Since mid-2024, the island has been suffering from prolonged daily blackouts, which have intensified in recent months due to frequent breakdowns of its thermoelectric plants and the lack of foreign currency to import sufficient fuel. In early January, the United States cut off shipments of Venezuelan crude oil to the country, and three weeks later threatened tariffs on countries that supplied oil to the island.