Venezuela “is ready” to “supply the world market” with oil and gas, President Nicolás Maduro said on Wednesday, September 14, who denounced the energy crisis caused by the “irrational” sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
A “recovered” oil industry
“Venezuela is ready and willing to fulfill its role and supply, in a stable and safe way, the oil and gas market that the world economy needs,” said the head of state in a ceremony organized within the framework of the visit to Caracas. OPEC Secretary General Haitham al-Ghais.
Nicolás Maduro has assured that his government has “recovered” its oil industry, whose production has reached historic lows after years of disinvestment and lack of maintenance.
Today it is around 700,000 barrels per day, compared to 2.3 million barrels per day in 2002.
The United States imposed a series of sanctions on Caracas in 2019, including an embargo on Venezuelan oil, following the 2018 re-election of Nicolás Maduro for a second term in a vote boycotted by the opposition.
The administration of President Joe Biden announced in May a limited relaxation of some of those sanctions. The move came as energy prices rose due to the war in Ukraine.
The Chavista president condemned the “energy crisis” generated by the sanctions against Russia, which he described as “irrational, unjustified (and) illogical.”
Appeal to foreign oil companies
Russia, Europe’s biggest supplier, has slashed its gas deliveries, raising fears of shortages and rising prices.
Nicolás Maduro called for a “fair and balanced price” of $100 a barrel and reiterated his call for foreign oil companies to produce in Venezuela. “We are ready (…) to increase oil production gradually and rapidly, to expand and increase the production of refined products,” he said.
“Le Venezuela to more than 50 world-class gazette projects, with the seismic studies carried out and with the legal guarantees that the international investisseurs” come “to produce gas in Venezuela and the need for the international markets”, at-he insist.
Haitham Al-Ghais said OPEC faces the “most serious and critical” challenges since its creation 62 years ago.
Source: BFM TV
