Venezuelan Oil Recovers With Our Own Effort, Says Maduro

"He (El Aissami and workers) have achieved the oil industry's recovery with their own effort, with their own work, with their own technology," said Maduro in a speech broadcasted through the state channel Venezolana de Televisión.

Maduro indicated that the workers could overcome this industry's technological dependence on the United States.

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"The entire Venezuelan oil industry, the refineries, the upgraders, the petrochemicals are technology dependent on the United States, there are machines that even turn off, as happens with Western technology, that sell a machine (to work) until 2018 and in 2018 it turned off and the only way to turn it on is to change a card and pay a little real (money) so that they put in (insert) the new card for four years, (...) And our technicians, workers, and scientists came and activated everything," he detailed.

In 2017, due to the sanctions imposed by the U.S. against the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), production reached the lowest levels of up to 100,000 barrels per day.

According to the Government, current production is between 800,000 and one million barrels per day.

Last March, Maduro indicated that Venezuela is prepared to increase oil production between 2 to 3 million barrels per day for the stability of the world market.

The measures imposed by the U.S. government on PDVSA prevent it from any transaction in the U.S. financial system, from financing to the purchase of spare parts or maintenance contracts.