Oil spills increase in Venezuela as it revs up output after the U.S. lifted sanctions

A work brigade sponsored by Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA, which critics blame for the oil spills, use shovels and rakes to remove congealed petroleum from a Lake Maracaibo beach. (John Otis for NPR)

LAKE MARACAIBO, Venezuela — On the western shore of Lake Maracaibo, workers use rakes and shovels to pull blobs of congealed oil out of the water, but the black goo sticks to everything — fishing nets, boats, outboard motors and even a calf that's wondering around the beach.

The oil slicks, which cover vast stretches of the lakeshore, are the result of constant leaks from underwater oil wells and a spaghetti of aging pipelines that run along the lake bottom. The mess has driven away beachgoers and decimated the fishing industry on Lake Maracaibo, an immense, brackish tidal bay connected to the Caribbean Sea.