The National Refining System (SRN) has responded to the gasoline pricing scheme set in May 2022 with a production rate already approaching 110.000 barrels per day.
In May 2022, the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, broke the taboo instilled in the collective imagination that halted any discussion surrounding the increase in gasoline prices.
The taboo originated in the thesis created and used by the Democratic Action party in the 40s to overthrow the government of President Isaías Medina Angarita, which held that Venezuela had to sell gasoline at low prices because it was the world's leading oil producer.
The proclamation is presented by the leader of that organization, former President Rómulo Betancourt, in his book "Venezuela, Politics and Oil," in the chapter "Gasoline and Other Fuels." There he writes:
"We had been the interpreters of a national demand, having maintained for many years of opposition struggle the need for the sale prices of petroleum products to be drastically reduced," he said.
“It was unusual for the world's leading oil exporter to have such high prices for gasoline and other fuels extracted from mineral oil.”
In the text, the AD leader points out that on December 1945, 0,0157025, just days after overthrowing the Medina government, the prices per liter of the two types of fuel in effect at the time were reduced to 0,005 and XNUMX bolivars per liter.
The decision led to the price of a gallon in Caracas falling to 1949 cents and the tax to 11,30 cents in March 1,22, less than half of what it was in New York, where it was 25,1 cents and 5,5 cents, respectively.
The drop was so steep that Venezuelan, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey (now ExxonMobil) and operator of several oil fields until December 31, 1975, issued a statement stating that Venezuela now had the lowest gasoline price in the world.
The campaign for reduction had taken such a deep root that the low price of gasoline became embedded in the popular imagination as a symbol or expression of ownership over oil: "The oil is ours," a phrase that in turn served to hide and divert attention from the enormous profits that the transnational oil companies were making.
But while the reduction benefited the population in the immediate future, in the medium and long term it benefited large American and European automotive companies much more, to the detriment of plans to develop a national railway system.
Betancourt himself betrays this when he states that fuel consumption soared that in 1947 it was three times higher than in 1938, an indicator that reveals the vertical increase in automobile sales that required new roads and highways, to the detriment of the once thriving national railway plan.
It is worth speculating that if the installation of trains had continued, today any Venezuelan could board a train that in a few hours would take him to the beaches of Morrocoy, Santa Fe or to cities like Ciudad Bolívar, San Cristóbal, Maracaibo, Carúpano.
Thus, the price of a liter of gasoline below the production cost, which today exceeds one dollar per liter, became a costly expense for the nation, as it entailed, and still entails, for the State to assume the difference between the two costs through the payment of a subsidy, which reduces resources for implementing the investment and maintenance plans required for the production of the same gasoline, among other expenses. Suffice it to say that in 2020 alone, the gasoline subsidy reached $11.000 billion.
Hence, the pricing scheme adopted in May 2022, with one liter at a subsidized price and another at $0,5, represents a contribution from citizens to a better and more efficient National Refining System.
The increased purchase of gasoline in dollars compared to subsidized gasoline demonstrates how, little by little, slowly, awareness of the population's social duty and purchasing power is growing. If people filled their tanks with free fuel in 2022, 60% of gasoline is now sold at $0,5 per liter at so-called "International" service stations, which are dollarized.
And reaching 110.000 barrels per day has been a huge effort. As soon as former US President Barack Obama issued the decree in 2015 classifying Venezuela as "an unusual and extraordinary threat," PDVSA began an operational decline that knocked gasoline production down by 77%.
From 283 barrels of fuel produced in 2014, it fell to 64,5 barrels in 2021. But the efforts of PDVSA workers to extract oil, a necessary resource for refineries, as well as to perform corrective and preventive maintenance and supply equipment and spare parts with alternative imports and their own inventiveness, managed to reverse the dramatic volume recorded in the cruel and critical year 2021.
By 2022, gasoline production had risen to 85,3 thousand barrels per day and closed 2023 at 88,3 thousand barrels, a trend that continues to average 99.640 in 2024 and reach between 100.000 and 110.000 today, which is reflected, note, in the reduction of user queues at the country's 1.430 active service stations.
The illegal measures had and still have a similar effect on the behavior of all the products generated by the four refineries of the National Refining System (SRN).
In addition to gasoline, the SRN produces the asphalt used for waterproofing; diesel, used as fuel and heating; fuel oil, in power plants and boilers; kerosene, for heavy machinery, heating and paint thinner; Jet A1 fuel or also called airplane gasoline; oils, lubricants, greases for cars and machinery; Marine MGO or marine fuel; and other specialties.
Today, in addition to the blockade, sanctions, and the revocation of licenses from American and European oil companies, the U.S. government has just added tariff penalties to countries that buy oil from Venezuela.
Although these difficulties will gradually be overcome in the medium and long term, in the near future, it is very likely that PDVSA's revenues will be affected, and with them, the operations of the four SRN refineries will be restricted.
This author, on a strictly personal note, suggests reviewing and adjusting the gasoline pricing scheme.
It's only fair to adjust the price of domestic fuels, for the benefit of everyone, especially the oil industry. Thank you, dear Werther, for enlightening us and informing us about the life and events of the oil industry in our country.
We must end the gasoline subsidy. Increase refining and sell across our borders to end the blockade.
Thank you for giving us a better understanding of a world that, as Venezuelans, we must deeply understand.
Good morning, unfortunately, the subsidized distribution of gasoline has been corrupted. I think we should try the $0.25 per liter price. At the pumps, they sell 30 liters for $10. Or wait in line for 4 to 7 hours. Sometimes they sell the amount they predetermine, like 20 liters per car. It's truly humiliating. All the subsidized pumps work whatever hours they want. If you complain, they marginalize you.