U.S. fuel shipments to Cuba's private sector are beginning to loosen decades of state control over the island's energy market, even as they create a costly black market that most Cubans cannot afford. Reuters reported that 900,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel arrived from February to May under a Commerce Department exception that lets U.S. firms sell fuel to private Cuban businesses despite the wider embargo. The supplies have helped private restaurants, retailers and taxis keep operating during blackouts and transport disruptions, but some fuel has been resold illegally at prices that reached $10 a liter, or $38 a gallon, before easing as imports increased. The shift follows an abrupt halt in shipments from Venezuela and Mexico after the United States ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, leaving Cuba's state-run services under acute strain. Cuba responded by allowing private businesses to import fuel for their own use in February, then approving broader economic reforms in June that could open the sector to private and foreign investors. By late July, nearly 200 Cuban businesses had been cleared to distribute fuel wholesale to other private firms, and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said Cuba had approved its first foreign investment venture focused on importing and selling fuel on the island. The new market remains tightly constrained. Retail sales by private firms are still not authorized, state infrastructure handles imported fuel, and transactions must pass through sanctioned state-owned ports and storage facilities. Analysts and sanctions experts say the arrangement offers some humanitarian relief and has helped avert deeper paralysis, but weak monitoring and extremely high prices mean the benefits are concentrated among businesses and wealthier consumers while inequality deepens for the broader population.