The Communist-run nation, a nearby neighbor and long-time foe of the United States, suffers daily, hours-long rolling blackouts that have decimated productivity and tested the patience of its exhausted residents.

Cuba depends on Venezuela’s crude and refined products - transported to the island by small vessels and a shadow fleet of sanctioned tankers - for a large portion of its consumption, according to shipping data and analysts.

Between January and November, Venezuela sent 27,000 barrels per day of crude and fuel to Cuba, below the 32,000 bpd of last year, according to shipping data and internal documents from state oil company PDVSA.

That covers about 50% of Cuba’s oil deficit, or around one quarter of the island’s total demand, according to Jorge Pinon, who studies Cuba’s energy infrastructure at the University of Texas at Austin.

Cuba has also announced a drive to fast-track the building of solar parks, though officials have cautioned that the island’s aging oil-fired power plants will still need fuel.