Cash-strapped and crisis-stricken Venezuela “can easily manage” an oil production increase of 1 million bpd this year to lift its production capacity to 2.472 million bpd, its oil minister Manuel Quevedo told S&P Global Platts in an interview published on Tuesday. Cash shortages amid a severe economic crisis have led to Venezuela’s oil production steadily dropping over the past few months, to a nearly-three-decade low last month. Last week, figures by OPEC showed that Venezuela’s oil production declined by another 82,000 bpd in December to 1.745 million bpd. The Venezuelan government’s self-reported figures showed that production plunged by a massive 216,000 bpd in December, to 1.621 million bpd. The country sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves saw its crude oil production drop by 649,000 bpd in 2017—a 29-percent annual plunge—and probably the worst loss of oil production in a single year in recent history. Quevedo—a National Guard major […]