Marcel Salikhov, president of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Forbes on the economic situation in Venezuela.
As Marcel Salikhov notes, over the past 20 years, the Venezuelan oil industry has been in a deep crisis. If in the late 1990s and early 2000s the country produced more than 3 million barrels per day, the current figures are almost four times more modest. The restoration of Venezuela's industry and bringing it at least to the previous level is not a question of lifting American sanctions, but a question of long—term investments, for which the republic is not yet objectively ready, the expert is sure:
Although a slight increase in oil production is expected by the end of next year (no more than 200,000 barrels per day, as predicted by the EIA (Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy), the situation is unlikely to affect the global market, at least, a prices collapse exactly is not expected, Salikhov believes."The Venezuelan authorities and the state oil-producing corporation PDVSA simply do not have such funds. Foreign oil companies — including Russian and Chinese, many of which have already been "burned" on Venezuelan projects — are not eager to invest new billions in Venezuelan oil."
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