Venezuela's oil production tumbles as economic crisis worsens

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil-idUSKCN0Z025R


Hungry Venezuelans are rioting and looting amid worsening food shortages, but the OPEC country's remote oil fields have been sheltered from the social unrest so far.

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Output in the country, which has the world's largest oil reserves, dropped to 2.37 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, according to OPEC data provided by Venezuela.

That's down some 5 percent from April and nearly 11 percent from 2015's average, data showed on Monday, piling more stress on oil-dependent Venezuela as it wrestles with the economic crisis. The drop could also help erode a supply glut that has weighed on prices.

Amid a cash crunch, Venezuela's oil industry is suffering from shortages of spare parts, the retreat of oil services companies due to unpaid bills, maintenance issues, and crime, according to workers, union leaders, and foreign executives.

[COLGATE4]

1. Venezuela is now payer the piper for the years of

Chavez-Maduro mismanagement and ineptitude. And, of course, it's always the poorest and most vulnerable who pay the highest price.