2016:President Maduro Credited With Key Role in OPEC Agreement to Stabilize Crude Oil Prices

Much of the cause of Venezuela’s economic duress in 2016 was due to the sharp decline in the price of oil which occurred in 2014. By 2016, Venezuela was losing $68 billion in annual oil sales. Oil export revenue accounted for 95% of Venezuela’s foreign earnings and 80% of Venezuela’s National budget.

Throughout 2016 President Maduro lobbied fellow OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) member countries to agree to an output ceiling that would result in an  oil price increase. In October, Maduro made a lightening tour visiting Azerbaijan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in a bid for a production freeze deal at OPEC’s November 2016 meeting[1] At the November Meeting OPEC member countries agreed to reduce oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day. Oil prices increased by 20% in 2017.This was the first coordinated oil output reduction to be agreed by the 14 member organization since 2008[2].

In January 2017 The Secretary General of OPEC Mohammed Barkindo traveled to Venezuela and thanked President Maduro for his efforts in achieving the stabilization of crude oil prices:   ” I come here to pay tribute to you and thank you for everything you did for us by achieving the agreement. You took it upon yourself the task of achieving market stability.”[3]     

 


 

 

1.     Venezuela’s Maduro Concludes Lightening Tour in Push for Oil Output Cap, Venezuelanalysis, October 24, 2016

2.     Venezuela Celebrates “Historic” OPEC Deal, Venezuelanalysis, December 2, 2016

3.     Maduro and OPEC Secretary General fine-tune strategies for oil price stability, ALBAciudad, January 16, 2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  2020:U.S. Drug Monitoring Data Show that Venezuela is not a Major Source of Illegal Drugs On March 11, 2020, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) released a Research Report authored by Geoff Ramsey and David Smilde: Beyond the Narcostate Narrative: What U.S. Drug Monitoring Data Says About Venezuela. [1] The Report concluded that: ·         “Venezuela is not a primary transit country for U.S. bound cocaine. About 90% of all    U.S.-bound cocaine is trafficked through Western Caribbean and Eastern Pacific routes, not through Venezuela’s Eastern Caribbean seas.” The Research Report relied on data from the U.S. Interagency Consolidated Counterdrug Database (CCDB), a multi-source collection of global illegal drug trafficking events that is gathered from intelligence data such as detection and surveillance as well as interdiction and law enforcement data. The authors noted that:” According to the Department of Defense ‘The ...
Read more

The Venezuela Reader - A Blog Focused on Recent History and Venezuela-U.S. Relations

Image
  The Venezuela Reader- A Blog Focused on Recent History and Venezuela-U.S. Relations My name is Leonard G.- I am The Venezuela Reader. I am a retired agricultural policy analyst living in the Washington, DC area. After retirement and when Covid closed off many activities, I began reading about US foreign policy. I was particularly intrigued by Venezuela. So, I began reading about Venezuela five years ago and haven’t stopped. Faced with mountains of paper, I took it on myself to summarize events in Venezuela’s history and in its relations with the US. I challenged myself to write one-page summaries which are factually accurate and documented with outside sources -newspaper articles, academic articles, government reports. I have already drafted over 200 one-page summaries covering events and milestones including elections, riots, court rulings, US sanctions, oil policies, social policies, food and agriculture, racism, drug trafficking, important reports, and biographies. I am...
Read more
Image
  2025:Former United Nations Drug Official Calls Venezuelan Narco-State Narrative a Great Hoax   Pino Arlacchii was the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) from 1997 to 2002. He recently wrote an article about the U.S. declaration that Venezuela is a “narco-state.” [1] His article was translated into English and released by Venezuelanalysis. [2] Here are excerpts from his article:[2]   Pino Arlacchi : The Great Hoax Against Venezuela: Oil Geopolitics Disguised as “War on Drugs” ·        “During my time as head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), I frequently travelled to Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, but never to Venezuela. There was simply no need. ·        “The Venezuelan government’s collaboration in the fight against drug trafficking was among the best in South America, rivalled only by Cuba’s impeccable record. This makes Trump’s nar...
Read more