Venezuela Oil Production Seen Rising 25% as US Eases Sanctions
- Producers see output rising by a likely 200,000 barrels a day
- Questions remain over how quickly the oil can come to market
The US just took the first steps in pulling back on a four-year-old sanction policy that had strangled oil exports out of Venezuela, home to world-class crude reserves. The major reversal signals that the Latin American country’s industry is on the brink of being able to pump 200,000 more barrels of crude a day — a roughly 25% jump in production.
That figure, a consensus outlook among several analysts, is based on the assumption that the sanctions will largely be done away with. For now, the relief is temporary: a six-month license authorizing transactions involving the oil and gas sector in Venezuela. Still, that’s a big step that will allow US entities to buy oil from the nation for the first time in years and make its shipments more palatable to global trade more generally.