CARACAS – Venezuela’s leftist incumbent Nicolás Maduro said on videoconference on Wednesday that the nation’s gasoline reserves will only last 20 days, but that his government is working hard to extend them to 30 days.

“Venezuela has gasoline reserves for 20 days, but we have accumulated some and we will make it to 30 days. We have achieved this because we are producing 30% of what the country consumes,” he said.

He made it clear that the fuel crisis has the US as the main culprit as a result of its “persecution” against the country. “They stole from us 3 million barrels on the high seas in August alone, all with the support of Juan Guaidó.”

Maduro pointed out that the fuel has not come “only from Iran, but from many regions. The intention is to regularize the internal market, but the most important thing is to guarantee national production.”

“Now it is the distribution with efficient levels what we have to deal with here until we can regularize the entire country.”

Lastly, Maduro made allegations of a terrorist attack against the Amuay refinery in Falcón state on Tuesday.

La Mañana, a Falcón-based newspaper, had reported on Tuesday that the incident was triggered by an “event” in the refinery’s alkylation unit from plant No.4.

However, the manager of the Amuay refinery and a trade union member in the place told Argus Media on Wednesday that the 100,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) distillation unit, whose capacity by design is 635,000 bpd, was in recirculation mode when the explosion occurred.

The trade union member, whose name was not disclosed, said that the incident might have been caused by a water leak that triggered the explosion. Meanwhile, the manager described the damages as “considerable” and that an investigation is still ongoing.