The accusations come after a fire broke out at the Petro San Felix heavy oil processing plant in eastern Venezuela on Wednesday. There were no reports of casualties.
Venezuela’s Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo insists the US is behind what he described as a terrorist attack on his country’s oil plant, where a blaze took place earlier this week.
“There was a terrorist act that we denounce at an international level,” Quevedo told state television network VTV.
He also accused Venezuela’s self-proclaimed president and opposition leader Juan Guaido of collusion with the US.
Quevedo tweeted earlier that the Venezuelan opposition is “intensifying terrorist incursions” against the state-run oil company PDVSA in order to negatively impact Venezuela’s crude exports, which are vital to the nation’s economy.
Slamming the opposition as “traitors”, he wrote that the US “decided to rob Venezuela of its oil resources and wants blood to flow”.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington with respect to Quevedo’s remarks, which came after three storage tanks at the Petro San Felix heavy oil processing plant in eastern Venezuela caught fire late Wednesday.