Rivals move in to plug holes left by Venezuela’s battered oil export industry
Houston/Dubai — As Venezuela’s dilapidated energy sector struggled to pump enough crude oil to meet the country’s Opec output target, rival producers within the exporters group had started to plug the gap, Opec and industry sources said. The South American country’s oil output hit a 28-year low in October as state-owned oil giant PDVSA struggled to find the funds to drill wells, maintain oilfields and keep pipelines and ports working. Venezuela’s oil production, which has been falling by about 20,000 barrels a day per month since last year, is on track to fall by at least 250,000 barrels a day in 2017, according to numbers reported to Opec, as US sanctions and a lack of capital hobble operations. Some Opec members expected the fall to accelerate in 2018, reaching at least 300,000 barrels a day, Opec sources said. At a recent internal Opec meeting, Venezuelan officials were asked to give a clearer picture of the country’s declining output. "A lot of questions have been raised by Saud...
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