Castillo tweeted pointing out that the increase in oil production and the recovery in crude oil prices boosted the economic reactivation of the country in 2021.
“The impacts of the sanctions against Russia put pressure on the price of energy commodities. In this environment, the Venezuelan economy projects a growth of five percent in 2022,” Castillo wrote.
The deputy minister highlighted that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) placed the price of Venezuelan Merey crude at 83.40 dollars a barrel, a 31% increase compared to last January.
“The price of Merey has maintained its upward trend since April 2021, when its value stood at 46.60 dollars, rising 81 percent since then,” the official stressed.
The OPEC basket traded in April at a price 27% higher than Venezuela’s crude oil, a difference owing to both the characteristics of Venezuelan oil and to the marketing discounts that must be applied due to the effects of the sanctions of the United States, Castillo said.
The deputy minister recalled that of the 502 sanctions adopted by Washington against Venezuela, a hundred were directly against the oil industry, which caused the collapse of 87 percent of hydrocarbon production, and the drop in foreign currency income to the country in 99 percent in seven years.
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