Venezuela has been cheating on OPEC quotas

Venezuela has been cheating on its OPEC oil production limits, Finance Ministry documents show. The country produced an average of 3,154,000 barrels of oil a day in 1996, according to the documents. Venezuela's OPEC limit is 2,359,000 bpd.
Venezuela, long believed to be one of the biggest OPEC cheats, has publicly maintained that it respects its OPEC quota. The documents also showed Venezuela exported an average of 2,723,000 bpd last year. Other Finance Ministry documents released recently to Congress show that production for 1997 is expected to rise to 3,250,000 bpd. Venezuela is the main foreign supplier of oil to the United States.