Petróleos de Venezuela

Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) is Venezuela's state oil company, created on 1 January 1976 when the government nationalised the oil industry. For years it ranked among the world's largest oil companies. After a strike by its managers and workers in 2002–2003, Hugo Chávez dismissed about 18,000 employees and used the company to fund social programmes; under-investment and sanctions later caused its output to collapse.