The September 2021 EPRINC report, “The Future of Venezuela’s Oil Industry,” analyzes Venezuela’s historically dominant oil sector, emphasizing its enormous resource base and key role in global production. Despite holding some of the world’s largest proven oil reserves, decades of mismanagement, underinvestment, and international sanctions have reduced output from over 3 million barrels per day in the 1970s to a fraction of that today. The report highlights that a full-scale return to the global market would require lifting sanctions and substantial capital investment—estimated at around $30 billion over several years—to modernize aging infrastructure and increase production. With the right investment and commercial framework, Venezuela could potentially raise output to approximately 2.5 million barrels per day over the long term, though significant technical and policy obstacles remain.
