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Venezuela faces biggest oil shortage ever

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It is not the first time that oil is missing in Venezuela, one of the largest producers in the world, but the shortage has never been so strong, reports the french newspaper Libération in the capital of the Latin American country, Caracas. After seven years of a deep economic crisis, most Venezuelan refineries are at a standstill. Most of the fuel that circulates in normal times is imported.

Deliveries were hampered by the US oil embargo on Venezuela. With the contraction of the country’s economy, aggravated by the health crisis of the coronavirus, the State has no means of paying the rare suppliers who still dare to escape the sanctions.

To complicate matters, the Nicolás Maduro government has started a rationing plan since April because of the Covid-19 pandemic: it is the military that distribute the fuel, giving priority to the “essential” professions, that is, the security forces and doctors and nurses. Every day the lines of car kilometers get longer in Caracas, notes Libération.

Even professionals essential in combating the pandemic despair. “I will have to wait about eight hours to fill up,” complained Eduardo, a surgeon who spends more time in his car than in the hospital. “The military is taking advantage of the pandemic and the shortage of oil to make money,” he says to the French newspaper.

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