Page 18 - MONTT LATIN AMERICAN MAGAZINE, DECEMBER, 2021

Venezuela: Interim Presidency Extended and Oil Production Increases
Despite experiencing one of its worst political moments, the opposition extended Guaidó’s government for a year, while President Maduro celebrated the country’s economic recovery, information received with caution from analysts and independent observers.
The president of the Venezuelan Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, whom President Nicolas Maduro appointed leader of the official negotiating group, demanded the release of Alex Saab, alleged front man of the head of Government of that country as the main condition to resume negotiations with the opposition which were inaugurated on August 13th and were interrupted in October, when the Colombian businessman was extradited from Cape Verde to the United States.
On the other hand, the Venezuelan opposition extended the interim presidency to Juan Guaido for one more year. He faces, however, his most committed political moment due to the increase of critics in his own ranks and there is a lack of enthusiasm from the citizens around his management due to the lack of instruments to confront Chavismo.
Oil Prices
Likewise, Venezuela once again reached a production of one million barrels of oil per day. In this way, the Government considers that it is meeting the goal that it had set for last year after the historic collapse of these years of economic and political
crisis, which put local production at just 350,000 barrels per day in 2020. Venezuela , traditionally one of the world’s energy powers, had a historic production of an average of three million barrels per day. The official information was received with caution by analysts and independent observers, and in some cases directly denied, although no source denies that the recovery of production is a fact. High prices, and an undeclared policy of easing sanctions on the part of the United States, have allowed Caracas to trade its oil with a little more comfort.
Drama in the Industry
Rafael Quiroz, an economist specializing in the matter and postgraduate professor at the Central University of Venezuela, assures that the country approached 800,000 barrels a day in December, and that the recovery is due, in part, to the alliance with the Government of Iran, which has provided Venezuela with naphtha and diluents to reactivate the extra-heavy oil wells in the Orinoco Belt production area. “This despite the fact that there are many inconveniences due to the quality of the crude oil that is being diluted. The situation of the Venezuelan
oil industry continues to be dramatic. We have not reached a million barrels. The government is deliberately lying right now, ” he says.
“The increase is real, but it is the result of opening what is called closed production, with a limited investment. Production had fallen due to international sanctions, but not local production capacity ”, explains specialist Francisco Monaldi, international consultant and professor at the Institute for Higher Administration Studies (IESA). “A new well has not been drilled in a year and a half. Basically we are returning to the production levels of the beginning of 2020 ”.
Monaldi maintains that the government built a sophisticated system to evade international sanctions, trade crude oil, and receive, above all, aid from Tehran, whose government is one of Caracas’ geopolitical allies. The current increase in crude production has also materialized, thanks to the reactivation of some projects with China and the American Chevron, which has a special permit from Washington to continue operating in the country.
p18 Montt Latin American Magazine