
How Low Can Venezuelan Oil Production Go? - sudouser
https://www.csis.org/analysis/how-low-can-venezuelan-oil-production-go
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tbihl
If there is any floor whatever in how unproductive an industry can become when
faced with a destabilizing government, it would probably be tied to old
technology. In other words, how much production can they get with really old,
disused equipment that the Venezuelan producers might be able to buy from
people around the world.

Anything more optimistic underestimates the complexity of industrial processes
and the extent to which so much of the stuff is expendable. The machinery
experienced by most people is their car, which has extremely light use that
allows it to reach obsolescence long before it ceases to be viable. On the
other hand, perpetually used equipment in harsh environments fails on
occasion, and there's enough of it that any sort of oil production should see
constant failures. If you don't have a long,stable, and organized supply chain
ready to handle those failures, things are going to go to hell pretty fast.

