Photo collage composition displaying an oil rig with a Venezuelan flag in the background. Photo: Anton Watman/Shutterstock.
Venezuela has increased its oil production by 36,000 barrels per day over the month of February 2024, currently standing at a total of 877,000 barrels per day (bpd). In January, the same indicator stood at 841,000 bpd, which also represents an increase of 9.3% in the oil production on the heavily sanctioned country as compared with production in December 2023, 802 bpd.
This is reflected in the estimates from “direct sources,” referring to official reports, in the monthly report of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), published this Tuesday, March 12.
OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report for March 2024 is now available online. #OPEC #MOMR
— OPEC (@OPECSecretariat) March 12, 2024
The OPEC document also notes the fact that according to secondary sources, meaning the data received from shipping companies and other oil key suppliers, Venezuela produced 820,000 bpd, directly conflicting with official reports. This disparity between direct (government) and secondary (corporate) sources is an ordinary occurrence in OPEC reports.
In October 2023, the US government announced the temporary and partial relief of their illegal unilateral sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry, but reversed this in January, announcing that the decision was going to be reverted by the end of April. The October announcement thus had no effect of significance on Venezuelan oil output improvement according to analysts.
The Venezuelan minister for petroleum, Pedro Tellechea, declared during a follow-up meeting of top oil executives in the state of Portuguesa at the end of February that this year, the country will exceed 1.2 million bpd of oil production.
OPEC output unchanged
In its monthly report, the organization kept its February forecast unchanged, which estimated the possible increase by 2.2% to a total of 104.46 million bpd, although the estimates remain subject to “many uncertainties,” including the evolution of the global economy itself, reports Prensa Latina.
According to calculations, the year-on-year expansion of 2.2% will be driven by economic growth mainly in China and other Asian countries, West Asia, India, and Latin America.
Inflation in Blockaded Venezuela 10 Times Less Than in Milei’s Neoliberal Argentina
Such performance should compensate for the relatively low growth rates in the so-called industrialized nations belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the report states.
In OPEC’s opinion, the vision of positive and stable dynamics in the main economies is also supported by expectations of a sustained softening of general inflation throughout 2024 and 2025.
The entity expects demand growth next year by 1.85 million bpd to a total of 106.35 million bpd, which will represent an increase of 1.77%.
(Ăšltimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
