Venezuela’s sliding oil output may be tumbling at a rate faster than initially anticipated and production could soon reach a 27-year low. As mentioned by Argus Media on 22 June 2016, representatives for the western and eastern divisions at state-run PDVSA in May estimated a 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) dip in production. However they recently revised their estimates to an output decline of 300,000 bpd. Therefore, daily production could fall below 1.9 million bpd for the first time since 1989, and around a 40 percent drop from 1998 prior to the beginning of the “Bolivarian Revolution” led by the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Venezuela reported to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries crude production of 2.370 million bpd in May 2016, compared with 2.515 million bpd in the first quarter of this year. Argus estimates the current figure at the lower rate of around 2.1 million […]