The collapse in oil prices and the tightening U.S. sanctions against Venezuela have accelerated the decline of the oil industry in the country sitting on the largest crude oil reserves in the world. As of May, Venezuela’s rig count plunged to just two, data from Baker Hughes shows, as production slipped by 16 percent to 645,700 barrels per day (bpd), Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing documents containing production data it has seen. Of the two active rigs in Venezuela last month, one was working at an oilfield and another one was drilling for gas, according to Bloomberg. Those rigs are working in the Orinoco oil belt, where Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA operates oilfields in joint ventures with foreign firms, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Venezuela’s oil industry was collapsing even before the oil price crash and the pandemic, due to the increasingly stricter sanctions in the […]