State-owned Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) contributed to Venezuela’s government coffers an income equivalent to US$6.2 billion in 2023, President Nicolás Maduro Moros said during his annual National Assembly address.

“This income made it possible to pay salaries, maintain social missions including health and education, build 500,000 houses and import goods: mainly supplies, medicines and spare parts,” the president of the OPEC country said Jan. 15 during his speech televised on Venezuelan national television.

Maduro highlighted the reinvigoration of alliances with international oil companies (IOCs) such as Spain’s Repsol SA as well as an agreement between PDVSA and the Natural Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago, in partnership with Shell plc, to develop strategic projects to the benefit of both Venezuela and Trinidad.

Maduro said Venezuela’s oil activity rose 12.99% in third quarter 2023 with a 14.60% increase in the extraction of crude oil and natural gas. Higher oil activities and production helped to boost oil exports around 60.46% in the quarter, Maduro said.

Venezuela’s production averaged 780,000 bbl/d in November 2023, according to data from secondary sources published in OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report in December 2023. This compares to an average production of 680,000 bbl/d in 2022 and 553,000 bbl/d in 2021, according to OPEC.

Production rises in 2023 were considered modest by Maduro, who urged Pedro Rafael Tellechea, Venezuela’s petroleum minister and president of PDVSA, to continue the progress in 2024.

“This year Tellechea, I aspire to much more,” Maduro said, adding that he expected the Venezuela economy to grow around 8% in 2024, aided by rising oil exports.

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