While supply crunch was already driving crude prices north, Bloomberg came out with a story mentioning that Venezuela, holder of the world’s largest oil reserves, imported crude for the first time in last five years.
The news report said that the nation’s output fell below 1 million barrels a day to a 16-year low in March, amid rolling blackouts and U.S. sanctions.
It was further detailed in the story that as the power disruption shut oil fields, pipelines and ports, bringing oil infrastructure to a halt, state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA bought a cargo of crude from fellow OPEC member Nigeria, marking the first oil import since 2014.