Despite outside assistance from Russia, China and Iran, the embattled socialist regime of President Maduro has proven incapable of rebuilding Venezuela’s once-mighty petroleum industry. According to the latest OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report Venezuela’s December 2020 oil output averaged 431,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily. While that represents a 4% increase over a month earlier, it is still less than a quarter of Venezuela’s average daily production for 2017 when the U.S. first placed sanctions on crude oil exports. The Latin American country’s once mighty oil industry, which is the backbone of the economy, is in inexorable decline . This is starkly evident when it is considered that not only was Venezuela once one of the world’s largest petroleum exporters, but it is home to the third-largest refinery complex yet suffers from crippling gasoline shortages. Even assistance from Russia, China and Iran has done little to improve the situation, […]