Venezuela's Merey average crude oil price 2019-2022

In November 2022, the price of Merey crude oil – Venezuela’s reference export blend – averaged 66.9 U.S. dollars per barrel, down from over 90 U.S. dollars per barrel six months earlier, the highest figure reported in the indicated period. Two years earlier, in April 2020, the blend reached an average barrel price of seven dollars, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Merey crude oil has been part of the OPEC Reference 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.

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 110 U.S. dollars per barrel as of June 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 oil reserves in the world, Venezuela’s oil production has steadily declined in recent years. In 2021, its daily output remained below 700 thousand barrels, a fifth of the level registered a decade earlier. In addition, ever increasing economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. have made exporting Venezuelan crude oil increasingly challenging. As a result, oil stocks in the country have risen, affecting both prices and production.