VENEZUELA (Syllabus: GS Paper 1 – Geography)

Context: After a gap of over three years, India emerged as the top buyer of Venezuelan crude for two consecutive months of December 2023 and January 2024, as per shipping fixtures and ship tracking data.

• Venezuela was India’s fifth largest oil supplier in 2019, but imports stopped after US sanctions.

Venezuela

• About: A country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea.
• Capital: Caracas.
• Boundary:

oNorth - Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean,

oWest - Colombia, 

oSouth - Brazil , 

oNorth-east - Trinidad and Tobago ,

oEast - Guyana.

• Significance: Venezuela has the world's largest known oil reserves and has been one of the world's leading exporters of oil. 
• Geographical features: Lake Maracaibo, Lake Valencia, Guiana Highland/Shield, Los Llanos, or "the plains“, Orinoco Delta etc.

India's dependence on crude oil import:

• India imports over 85% of its crude oil requirements and around 50% of its natural gas requirements.
• Russia has become the largest crude oil exporter replacing west Asian countries because of heavy concessions in recent times.