Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, ) (English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production of natural gas. Since its founding on 1 January 1976 with the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry, PDVSA has dominated the oil industry of Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter. Oil reserves in Venezuela are the largest in the world and the state-owned PDVSA provides the government of Venezuela with substantial funding resources. Following the Bolivarian Revolution, PDVSA was mainly used as a vital source of income for the Venezuelan government. Profits were also used to assist the presidency, with funds directed towards allies of the Venezuelan government. With PDVSA focusing on political projects instead of oil production, mechanical and technical statuses deteriorated while employee expertise was removed following thousands of politically motivated firings. Incompetence within the company has led to serious inefficiencies and accidents as well as endemic corruption, at least $11 billion were siphoned off between 2004 and 2015. Jorge Giordani, minister of planning until in 2014, estimates that $300 billion was simply stolen. As of 2018, thousands of workers abandoned their work for PDVSA, especially after PDVSA was put under military control. Reserves and capacity As of 2003, Venezuela had of conventional oil reserves according to PDVSA figures, the largest in the Western Hemisphere and making up approximately half the total. This puts Venezuela as fifth in the world in proven reserves of conventional oil. By also including an estimated of tar-like extra heavy crude oil in the Orinoco Belt region, Venezuela claims to hold the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world. Venezuela also has of natural gas reserves. The crude oil PDVSA extracts from the Orinoco is refined into a fuel eponymously named ‘Orimulsion’. PDVSA has a production capacity, including the strategic associations and operating agreements, of per day (600,000 m³). Officials say production is around although most secondary sources such as OPEC and the EIA put Venezuela's output at least lower. During the presidency of Hugo Chávez the organization's payroll tripled, while oil production fell steeply, a drop of 700,000 barrels per day. Soaring oil prices began in 2002 and peaked in 2008 at $147 per barrel. Politicization In 2002, many PDVSA employees went on strike against the policies of Chávez, who in response fired over 19,000 workers