PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-oil company, is losing workers by the thousands, with as many as 10,000 leaving the company in just one week of January, media report, citing protests against low wages and the growing risk of accidents due to lack of equipment maintenance. The situation, according to Univision , has escalated to such an extent that PDVSA’s board of directors has stopped accepting letters of resignation. Venezuela’s main source of revenues, PDVSA, today produces around 1.6 million barrels of crude daily, the lowest in 30 years and down from 3.8 million bpd back in 1999 when Hugo Chavez came into power. Now, pressured by a deteriorating economy and sanctions, the oil company has no means to maintain its equipment and production, and it can’t hold on to its workforce. As of August 2016, there were 143,000 people working for PDVSA. That figure has dwindled significantly, with the 10,000-weekly exodus […]