The move to privatise Venezuela’s vast oil industry is the latest sign that Mr Maduro is quietly abandoning his socialist principles

President Maduro is considering privatising Venezuela’s vast oil industry in a significant reversal of the country’s socialist policies.

Government representatives have held talks with Russian, Spanish and Italian oil companies, offering them majority shareholdings in the industry, according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg News. That would, in effect, mean the break-up of the state oil company PDVSA, which was nationalised in the 1970s and became the crown jewel of the Venezuelan economy.

The country has the world’s largest proven oil reserves but after two decades of left-wing administration and widespread corruption, productivity has collapsed.

The move is the latest sign that Mr Maduro is quietly abandoning his socialist principles. Last year he lifted restrictions on the use of the US dollar, leading to the