Melbana Energy (ASX:MAY) has released a maiden resource estimate – unrisked, mind you – for its oil and gas block offshore WA’s northwest, in a move that appears to show a company pivoting away from Cuba.

A strange combination of fundamental proposition and exotic novelty has long converged upon Melbana in the minds of traders, given its one of two listed Australian companies in Cuba in the first place.

Melbana is joined in the jurisdiction by Antilles Gold Limited, which explores for what it sounds like along with copper. How these two companies managed to make Cuba work for them in the first place remains something of intrigue, at least to true junior sector enthusiasts.

Regardless, Melbana has held Australian blocks off the northwest shelf (NWS) for a while, but its inking of a maiden resource comes as Cuba’s economy is rattled by an ongoing conflation of different crises.

The country’s population has been leaving the country en masse, largely due to an economic crisis built from years of sanctions, the impacts of COVID-19 and the fact one in four residents is over the age of 60.

The entire power grid was teetering late last year as aging infrastructure also poses issues, and what all of this has led to is millions of Cubans leaving the country.

According to some reports, less than 75,000 children were born in the island nation in 2024. Estimates vary by which percentage Cuba’s population is declining each year, but recent reports indicate the country now has less than 10M people.

Other figures go as low as 8M; a step-up in gov’t crackdowns on protests is also blamed as a factor for societal disruption by some sources.

All in all, a desktop dive into Cuba’s current economic status paints a pretty clear picture of at least a short-term decline.

Good timing, then, that Melbana can now pivot into its Oz operations. The company posted a prospective resource of 2.75 trillion cubic feet of gas – unrisked gross best estimate – and a contingent resource at 276 billion cubic feet.

But the location of the block in the NWS is what is perhaps most tantalising to investors on Wednesday – existing infrastructure in the region underpins the Gorgon gas plant headed by Chevron and a litany of supermajors offshore WA.

With that said, Melbana is suffering from an illiquidity problem, with less than $40,000 worth of shares trading hands to see Melbana jump 3.45%.

MAY last traded at 3cps.

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