Venezuela's cryptocurrency value will be equivalent to one barrel of oil

The 'Petro', the cryptocurrency to be launched by the Venezuelan government, will have a price equivalent to that of a barrel of oil, President Nicolás Maduro announced Wednesday.

"For every Petro, a barrel of oil, that's the value," Maduro said, without giving details about launch dates or mechanisms to access the new virtual currency.

The basket of Venezuelan crude closed last week at 56.57 dollars per barrel, according to the Petroleum Ministry. The average price in 2017 reached 46.45 dollars, after an average of 35.15 dollars the previous year.

On December 3, Maduro announced the creation of Petro, a virtual currency that will be supported by the oil wealth of the country with the largest reserves in the world.

On Wednesday, the president announced that he will support the cryptocurrency with one of the active fields in the Orinoco Oil Belt, a territory of 55,000 km2 with rich crude reserves.

"I am going to formalize the delivery of the number one field of the Ayacucho block (...) to be the material basis of the petromoneda," said Maduro, who said that these wells have some 5 billion barrels of oil "certified internationally. "

When launching the initiative, the president assured that the cryptocurrency will allow to advance to new forms of financing before the financial sanctions that the United States imposed against Venezuela, harming its economy.

Washington banned its citizens and companies from negotiating debt issued by the Maduro government and the state oil company PDVSA. (I)