China Stakes Its Claim in Latin American Energy:

Companies (PDVSA) – possesses the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

Starting around 2007, the CDB signed oil-for-loan agreements with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and PDVSA. But under the Chávez government (which assumed office in 1999) and the administration of President Nicolás Maduro, which took over after Chávez died in 2013, Venezuela’s oil industry sank into disarray, becoming a center of inefficiency and corruption for government officials and their friends. The Chávez government fired competent PDVSA executives, politicized the company, failed to make investments in maintenance and presided over the management, deficient maintenance and periodic national power outages, Venezuela’s oil production fell to 929,000 b/d in 2019, from about 3.5 million b/d in 2000. OPEC reported that Venezuelan oil production averaged 340,000 b/d in August 2020. Venezuela fell behind in its oil deliveries and loan repayments to China as PDVSA went into decline and production slumped. The Trump administration began applying increasing layers of sanctions on Venezuela several years ago, and in 2019 halted PDVSA’s ability to export directly oil dismantling of a once-efficient and profitable international enterprise. As a result of poor

Entrance to PDVSA Headquarters in Caracas. Photo : Wikipedia Commons, Wilfredor.

VENEZUELA: C h ina had high hopes when it signed a “strategic development partnership” in 2001 with Venezuela, then headed by leftist President Hugo Chávez. The agreement ushered in a period of new bilateral trade, Chinese investments and big loans covering oil, mining, infrastructure and other areas. Both were socialist countries, and both had complementary economies. China needed (and still needs) imported oil, and Venezuela – which previously had one of the world’s most efficient National Oil

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