Venezuela's complete blackout is set to soon begin slowly easing, the country's government has said.
Venezuela's contested government has accused the opposition of sabotaging the entire country's electric grid, which has taken its largest oil terminal offline. No evidence has been presented to indicate an act of sabotage by the opposition is responsible.
Although the power has not yet begun to be restored, the restorage should begin soon, Venezuela's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on state television.
Vessel loading and offloading was interrupted by the blackout at Jose, the country's largest oil terminal, shipping documents seen by Reuters have shown. Jose is responsible for 70% of the country's oil exports-which mainly go to China, Russia, ENI, and Repsol.
The blackouts also disrupted operations at the El Palito oil refinery and the state-run oil company's headquarters in Caracas.
Venezuela's contested president, Nicolas Maduro, was able to hold precarious power over the country after the July elections, winning what most consider to be a rigged election against the opposition. The election results, the details of which have yet to be made public, plunged the country into a whole other level of disarray, with the current regime arresting members of the opposition.
The blackouts come just two days after news broke that Nicolas Maduro would make changes to top leadership at PDVSA and the oil ministry.
Venezuela is one of the five original oil-producing countries that created OPEC and is home to the world's largest proven oil reserves. Since that time, the country's oil industry has suffered under the weight of mismanagement, lack of investment, corruption, political instability, and U.S. sanctions, diminishing it to one of OPEC's smallest producers.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More
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