Venezuela Intends To Double Oil Production Within Year - President Maduro

MEXICO CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th September, 2018) Venezuela intends to double its oil production within a year, President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday.

"I set a deadline of one year. By August 2019, we must double the production of oil from the current one," Maduro said at a press conference.

According to OPEC sources, Venezuela produced 1.2 million barrels of oil a day in August - about half of the early 2016 level.

At the same time, Venezuela intends to boost daily oil export to China to 1 million barrels from 640,000 barrels as of now, the president said.

During Maduro's visit to China late last week, the two countries agreed on joint implementation of a plan to increase production and, accordingly, supplies of oil, which implies an investment of $5 billion. On Tuesday, the head of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) arrived in Venezuela to reach final agreements, Maduro said.

Earlier, the head of the Latin American state said that Venezuela could increase oil production by 500,000 barrels or 1 million barrels a day if the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to increase production as part of the agreement between OPEC and non-cartel states.

Oil production in Venezuela has reached multi-year lows and continues to fall amid hyperinflation, economic and political crisis. According to OPEC, in 2017 the country produced an average of 1.91 million barrels per day, with daily average falling below 2 million barrels per day in October 2017 for the first time in 28 years. In total, from 2015 to October 2017, daily production fell by almost 700,000 barrels.