CARACAS, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- State-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) exceeded one million barrels of crude produced per day at the end of 2021, double what it recorded a year ago, Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami reported on Saturday.
This figure was reached despite the dozens of sanctions the U.S. government has imposed on the South American country, El Aissami said in a Christmas message.
"Despite the threats of the criminal blockade of the United States, here is a people standing with dignity and in the vanguard: the oil working class," he said.
At the end of 2020, the Venezuelan state oil company reported a production level of 500,000 barrels per day, but production rose to 876,100 barrels per day at the end of November of this year.
The Venezuelan government reported that from 2014 to 2019, the country experienced a 99 percent drop in its foreign exchange earnings.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said in September 2020 that "of every 100 U.S. dollars or euros that the country obtained from the sale of oil in 2014, today it obtains less than one."
The country has begun a phase of economic recovery through the diversification of production and the rehabilitation of Venezuelan petroleum activity, according to the government.
