According to President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela received just US$100m from oil sales in March, which he said was a 97% drop from US$3.5bn two years ago. Maduro didn’t specify the provenance of his figures but on central bank balance of payments data, Venezuela’s oil exports peaked in 2013 at US$93.6bn overall that year, equating to average monthly earnings of US$7.8bn, an amount that the Maduro government can only dream about these days. Indicative of the severe cash crisis, international reserves hit a new low US$12.93bn this week and the most important oil services provider in Venezuela, Schlumberger, which has been in the country almost 90 years, announced it would reduce its operations due to payment problems. End of preview - This article contains approximately 1400 words.
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