The top three important and famous industry groups present in Venezuela – a Latin American Country, are Oil Storage, Transportation, and Refinery Operations. Located in South America, Venezuela is a third-world country and is still a developing nation. One of the most interesting and widely-known facts about this country is Venezuela’s Oil Production. The country was known as the world’s biggest manufacturer, producer, and exporter of Crude Oil, and was the second-largest producer after the U.S.A. With South America being a nation with the largest number of Crude Oil reserves in the world, Venezuela is also one of the founding members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries – OPEC. 

The development of Venezuela as a developing third-world country, its hands as a Petrostate in the Crude Oil industry was known to keep the economy afloat. Since its deep roots and the vast numbers of workforce having years and generations of experience working in this field, Venezuela was once upon a time the largest oil-producing Latin American country alongside Mexico. Unfortunately with a long continuous stream of unfortunate events and circumstances, Venezuela has been seeing a massive economic crisis since the 2010s.

However, on much closer inspection, it is uncovered that Venezuela’s economic crisis has been suffering and severely affected by the country being overly dependent and completely reliant on the manufacture, production, and export of their Crude Oil. This led to a continuous series of sharp rises and falls in oil prices. In the 2010s, Venezuela started to face an increasing lot of mismanagement and unstable industry and governmental operations in the state-owned oil and natural gas company – Petróleos de Venezuela S.A (PDVSA). The PDVSA was formed and established in 1976 nationalizing the petroleum industry. With the sudden constant decline in oil prices as well, Venezuela also faced a lot of corruption, economic sanctions, and unstable political governance. Then came the slow poverty-stricken people who were facing tumultuous times in the shortage of basic goods needed to move on with everyday life. Hyperinflation too did not escape the country’s already deteriorating economy. 

With everything economic revolving around Venezuela’s Crude Oil production and industry, the people’s well-being was greatly disrupted due to mismanagement in the PDVSA crisis, rapid decrease in the production of crude oil, poor financial assets, and economic sanctions put its trade, export, and relations with foreign countries to a step. Venezuela was being hit from any corner it turned and faced a lot of hurdles, roadblocks, and challenges. From producing 300 billion barrels of Crude Oil annually, an almost 90% rate decline in production is seen today. 

To provide their help and improve the country’s economic crisis, several foreign oil companies like Chevron from the US and Rosneft from Russia, invested in Venezuela’s PDVSA and established joint ventures to leverage technological advancements and expertise in the country’s global and economic recovery in the Crude Oil production and industry. The PDVSA is also making efforts to reconstruct its management and operations to fix its current infrastructure status. The Venezuelan government is also participating in the U.S Sanction Relief Negotiation meetings to ease the imposed sanctions that are restricting its trade, export, as well as the resources required in expertise and technology. While multiple Community Programs are being held by the people and communities to the interventions of International Humanitarian Aid coming into Venezuela, the challenges that are being addressed to recover the developing country’s Crude Oil production still face complex challenges and roadblocks. 

Even in its journey to recover from the feeling of a never-ending economic crisis, Venezuela is trying to expand its focus in economic aspects beyond the Crude Oil Industry, but many people have been migrating to other countries with the hope of finding better career opportunities, family security, good governance, financial aid, and healthy living situations. While for the people who chose to remain in the country with the undying commitment to see their nation improve one day, the country today can be seen with a positive outlook in its efforts to gradually recover from the terrible years of being in constant pain and crisis. In 2021, Venezuela’s oil reserves hit a high improvement of producing Crude Oil worth 304 billion barrels, which is a brilliant triple-power recovery achievement from the past decade. Then in late 2023, Venezuela saw a Crude Oil production of 850,000 barrels per day, and in 2024 this year saw Chevron’s plans to drill thirty new oil wells in Venezuela. This plan proposes to see a good 35% increase in oil production up to 250,000 by 2025 next year. 

Although Venezuela is still gradually recovering, the country still faces many challenges that directly affect its economic improvements and efforts to increase and become known once again as the world’s largest Crude Oil producer, or as one of the world’s largest Venezuelan oil exports. But with the hope that shows an increasing number in oil production by 4.5% growth this year alone, alongside the loyal, passionate, driven people of the country standing in respectable and commendable support, Venezuela can see their dreams coming true soon, and accomplish all their goals one day!