Venezuelan farmers said that they had asked the government to allow them to import diesel themselves to alleviate shortages of the fuel that are hindering food production and distribution. Diesel has become scarce in the crisis-stricken OPEC nation amid very low output at state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela’s 1.3 million barrel-per-day (bpd) refining network, and escalating U.S. sanctions barring foreign oil companies from swapping fuel for Venezuelan crude. Venezuela’s hydrocarbons law reserves the right to international trade in crude and refined products to the state and state-owned companies. But groups representing ranchers and milk producers said they were seeking temporary authorization due to the current crisis. “We want them to give producers the possibility at least temporarily, given the circumstances, in order to stay afloat,” Armando Chacin, president of the Fedenaga ranchers’ federation, told Reuters. Neither PDVSA nor Venezuela’s oil or information ministries immediately responded to requests for […]