Venezuela gets new oil minister

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday announced the current head of state oil giant PDVSA will take over as minister of oil and mining as well.

"I have decided to name comrade Eulogio del Pino as the People's Minister for Oil and Mining," Maduro said in an address on state television.

Del Pino, who has led PDVSA since September 2014, is not the first to take on the dual ministerial role in the oil-dependent OPEC member state.

Rafael Ramirez led the same two state oil bodies for a decade until he was named foreign minister and later UN ambassador.

In his speech, Maduro voiced concern about the continuing slide in crude prices, which ended last week at 41.40 dollars and have shed 27 percent since early June.

Venezuela imports the vast majority of the basic goods it consumes with oil money, which accounts for 96 percent of its foreign currency.

But that cash has dried up as crude prices have slid by more than 50 percent since mid-2014.

With Venezuela's economy in recession, oil revenues plunging, crime soaring and consumers facing chronic shortages of basic goods, Maduro's approval rating has sunk in recent months.

Venezuelans are preparing to go to the polls in December to elect a new National Assembly, with the opposition favored to win for the first time since the rise of Maduro's predecessor, long-time socialist president Hugo Chavez.