Reuters Venezuela President Nicolas MaduroVenezuela’s crude-oil output is collapsing in the wake of the nation’s economic crisis, making the country the biggest wild card in OPEC’s effort to balance global supply and demand, the International Energy Agency said Thursday in a monthly report. Within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, “the biggest risk factor is, and will likely remain, Venezuela,” the IEA said in its monthly oil market report. The OPEC member’s oil output slid to 1.55 million barrels a day in February, down 60,000 barrels month-on-month, and 540,000 barrels a day below the level seen a year earlier, according to the Paris-based IEA. The production declines come on the heels of an economic crisis in the nation, which suffers the world's highest inflation. But it helps OPEC in its effort to eliminate a global glut of crude. “With supply from Venezuela clearly vulnerable to an accelerated decline, without any compensatory change from other producers it is possible that the Latin American country could be the final element that tips the market decisively into deficit,” the IEA said.via