Venezuela Halts Sending Gas to Colombia to Tackle Drought

Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, has temporarily suspended the exportation of gas to Colombia to cope with the battering to the Venezuelan electronic system wrought by the drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon.

An announcement on the company’s website on Friday said that in spite of the suspension, the country’s gas-producing sources would run as usual.

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PDVSA also confirmed that once the country’s hydroelectric reservoirs were up optimum levels, they would rebegin sending 39 million cubic feet daily to Colombia.

Venezuela’s ministry of oil and minerals ordered the measure to guarantee that operativity of the national electrical service, maximising the country’s thermoelectric generation.

At the end of December, the ministry of ecosocialism and waters announced that a period of drought forecast for the country would be the most serious in years, and would affect the levels of the main reservoirs.

Venezuelan authorities launched a communication campaign aimed at mitigating the effects of El Niño, which is the cause of severe problems throughout South America including drought and water scarcity in northern Venezuela.

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The impact of El Niño is expected to be felt in the availability of water for urban and agricultural uses, and also in the water that feeds the nation’s hydroelectric dams. The prevention program seeks to raise public awareness on how to best ration the use of the resource.

El Niño creates a warming of ocean temperatures in the Pacific, which affects wind patterns and can trigger both floods and drought in different parts of the world, leading to reduced harvests and putting food security at risk.