CARACAS, Jan 25 — Venezuela wants to boost its oil production by 18 per cent this year through planned reforms that will fully open the sector to private investors, the head of the state oil giant PDVSA said Saturday.

“We had a law... that was not up to date with what we needed as an industry,” PDVSA CEO Hector Obregon said, adding that the target for 2026 “is to grow by at least 18 per cent.”

Current production is around one million barrels per day.

Analysts say the law promised by interim president Delcy Rodriguez and adopted in a first reading on Thursday was drafted under pressure from Washington following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by US special forces.

US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his interest in Venezuela’s oil.

If adopted, the bill would roll back decades of state controls over Venezuela’s oil sector, which were tightened by Maduro’s late mentor, socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez, in the mid-2000s. — AFP