Bad Oil News For Venezuela Is Bad Oil News For Cuba

As Venezuela becomes increasingly unable to produce enough oil for its own needs, it is cutting exports to Cuba.

Cuba, long reliant on Venezuela as its top energy supplier, has received some 53,500 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from PDVSA this year, a 40 decline from the first half of 2015, according to the company's data.

Cuba remembers how the Soviets had economic problems that made oil suddenly scarce. It's not at that point yet, only because the opposition has yet to take power. As soon as that happens, exports will plummet to virtually nothing (or perhaps actually nothing). With the U.S. opening up to Cuba, it'll be a lot harder these days to use ideology to explain shortages.