Venezuela is currently producing some 850,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and hopes to soon reach 1 million bpd, the country’s deputy oil minister Erick Perez said, following the temporary lifting of U.S. sanctions on the nation.

Washington in October issued a license allowing Venezuela to export oil, gas and fuel to its chosen markets through mid-April as a way to encourage negotiations for a fair presidential election next year. The measures could be reverted.

Venezuela’s output in October was 786,000 bpd.

The country is hopeful it will be able to progressively recover market share in what it was the main destination of its oil, the United States, while pushing deals for starting exports of natural gas, including to Trinidad and Tobago, Perez said.

“The recovery of our markets, the recovery of those customers will improve over the time,” he told journalists on the sidelines of an oil conference in Caracas.

“We have progressed with the government of Trinidad for the Dragon field,” he also said, referring to a U.S.-authorized offshore gas project in negotiation with Trinidad’s National Gas Company (NGC) and Shell.

Trinidad’s energy minister Stuart Young traveled to Caracas this week to negotiate the terms of a gas license for Dragon, the Caribbean country’s government said on Monday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Deisy Buitrago, writing by Marianna Parraga)