Venezuela surprises oil markets, nears 1M bpd in oil production

After years of crippling US sanctions, coupled with internal mismanagement, Venezuela's national oil company PDVSA has stunned observers as it reported a large increase in its crude oil output.

OPEC's Monthly Oil Market Report for December 2021 shows that Venezuela pumped an average 824,000 barrels a day in November, almost double its output in November 2020. This large increase in output can be attributed to a large number of factors, including technical assistance and diluent provided by Iran, according to oilprice.com.

Another factor is PDVSA's settling of its overdue debts with local oil service companies; As it entered December, the national oil company announced that it pumped an average of 930,000 barrels per day, a little under the company's end of year target of one million bpd.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had announced on Saturday that his country is close to producing 1 million bpd, adding that next year's goal is 2 million bpd.

Venezuela's production had neared 3.2 million bpd in 2008, and plummeted to less than 400,000 bpd in 2020 on account of US sanctions and mismanagement.

In his interview for Al Mayadeen, Maduro had said that 2021 was the first year in which Venezuela registered economic growth since “the beginning of the criminal imperialist US sanctions,”  adding that this growth was the result of Venezuela’s economy which produces food, goods, products, and services. The country has witnessed growth in its industries, trade, and its domestic market as a result of the Venezuelans' continued effort.