Declining Oil Output Increases Economic Pressure on Maduro Regime

The Venezuelan government, dependent upon cash-for-oil loans from China and Russia, is facing a decline in domestic oil production and a bleak outlook for the future of its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). The situation is so dire that Venezuela is importing light crude oil from the U.S. because Venezuela’s refineries can’t process the country’s own heavier crude, according to Miriam Grunstein, chief energy counsel at Brilliant Energy Consulting and a nonresident scholar at the Baker Institute Mexico Center. More…