How Venezuela Pulled Its Oil Production Out Of A Tailspin

• Venezuela this year almost doubled its oil production from last year's decades low as its state-owned company struck deals that let it pump and process more extra-heavy crude into exportable grades. 
• The surprising reversal began as state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA.UL), known as PDVSA, won help from small drilling firms by rolling over old debts and later obtained steady supplies of a key diluent from Iran. The two lifted output to 824,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November, well above the first three-quarters of the year and 90% more than the monthly average a year earlier. 
• Whether it can continue to ramp up production is unclear. Years of unpaid bills, mismanagement, and, more recently, U.S. sanctions have cut its access to specialized drilling equipment and foreign investment. The sanctions have also limited its customers to firms with no track record of trading.
• PDVSA's latest gains - including reaching 1 million barrels of daily output for the first time in nearly three years, which Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami described in a Christmas day message as a "great victory" - still fall short of current management's 2021 goal of producing 1.28 million bpd.

 (Source: Reuters)