oil companies were forced to forego drilling until after the war. By the end of 1917, the first refining operations began at the San Lorenzo refinery, and the first significant exports of Venezuelan oil by Caribbean Petroleum left from the San Lorenzo terminal. petroleum appeared for the first time on the Venezuelan export statistics at 21,194 metric tons.Venezuela had become the largest oil exporter in the world and, after the United States, the second largest oil producer. Venezuela had become the third-leading oil producer in the world, behind the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as the leading exporter. When oil was discovered at the Maracaibo strike in 1922