According to Tankertrackers data, which monitors and reports on crude oil shipments, oil exports in Venezuela decreased by 28 percent in April compared to the previous month and amounted to 410 thousand barrels per day.
95 percent of this amount, approximately 1 million 670 thousand tons, was sent to China and the remaining 5 percent to Cuba. The organization called Interamericans Trend reports that Venezuela put in a total of $534 million from oil exports in April, when the oil repayments made by Venezuela, which draws oil from China for oil, and the free oil sent to Cuba are also taken into account.
In Venezuela, which has the world’s richest oil fields with more than 300 billion barrels of underground reserves, both the difficulties in finding buyers due to international sanctions on oil sales, the poor management of the oil company owned by the state, and the lack of necessary investment in refineries negatively affect oil production and sales.
Oil production, which was about 3 million barrels per day in 2013, was below 700 thousand barrels last year, according to Venezuelan Petroleum Chamber data.
It was reported that oil exports, which were not officially announced, were 544 thousand barrels in January, 525 thousand barrels in February, and 583 thousand barrels in March.
According to Tankertrackers data, in Venezuela, where oil production fell to 410 thousand barrels per day in April, this amount is less than half of the government’s 830 thousand barrels per day production target for 2022.
President Maduro, who declared that he was a candidate to meet some of the deficit in the world energy sector after the Ukraine crisis, claimed that his country could increase its oil production to 2 million barrels per day in a short time if sufficient investment was made. However, experts note that oil production could be between 1.2 and 1.5 million barrels per day by the end of the year, provided the necessary financial support is provided. It is reported that the oil usage in the country is around 100 thousand barrels per day.