Venezuela’s economic crisis deepens – country considering refining foreign oil

Venezuela’s economic crisis has crippled its energy industry, and now the country is considering producing fuels from foreign crude oil for the first time ever, according to Reuters.

This comes as the country is having trouble meeting obligations to fulfill fuel contracts for customers in Russia and China, among other nations.

A monthly refining plan seen by Reuters suggests state-run oil company PDVSA may process up to 57,000 barrels per day of foreign crude at the country’s largest refinery.

PDVSA has been facing challenges in recent years due to a lack of lighter crudes to refine and the poor state of its facilities.

As previously reported by FOX Business, Venezuela’s oil production has been on a downtrend for decades, but is now collapsing, as economic turmoil has almost halted the nation’s output of its most precious resource. Declining oil production means the country doesn’t have the crude to refine into fuels.

The country has even gone as far as launching its own version of bitcoin in hopes that it would provide an economic boost.