Venezuela's Merey average crude oil price 2020-2024

In February 2024, the price of Merey crude oil – Venezuela’s reference export blend – averaged 67.27 U.S. dollars per barrel, up from 66.5 U.S. dollars per barrels the previous month. Merey crude oil has been part of the OPEC basket since January 2009. A blend of extra-heavy crude oil from the Orinoco belt and lighter grades, Venezuela’s export oil is the heaviest component in the basket, and, in turn, has historically reported the lowest average price in the OPEC basket.

The 2020's oil crisis

Crude oil prices worldwide dropped dramatically in the first months of 2020, the result of an unprecedented decline in demand as lockdown measures were implemented globally in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. With storage facilities filling up, WTI crude oil reached a record negative price in the third week of April. Since then, prices have seen a mostly continual recovery. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022, prices surged to levels last seen in 2008, with reference oil blends Brent, WTI, and OPEC basket averaging at more than 100 U.S. dollars per barrel in summer 2022.

Venezuela’s struggling oil sector

The global drop in prices brought upon by the pandemic was only the most recent blow to the South American country's oil industry. Despite holding the largest proved oil reserves in the world, Venezuela’s oil production has steadily declined in recent years. In 2022, it averaged around 700 thousand barrels per day, a fifth of the level registered a decade earlier. A political and economic crisis as well as resulting U.S. sanctions have led to a rise in oil stocks in the country, affecting both prices and production.