Caracas — Self-declared Venezuelan interim president Juan Guaido has said he will appoint Gustavo Baquero, an oil industry veteran and university professor, as president of state PDVSA, sources close to Guaido said Tuesday.

There was no information available about who would accompany Baquero on a parallel PDVSA board of directors appointed by Guaido, the leader of Venezuela's National Assembly. There were also no details of the date on which the appointment of Baquero will be made.

An engineer, Baquero, 43, has extensive international experience in the oil industry, studied business at Harvard University and graduated from the Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB) in Caracas. He has been a professor of petroleum economics at the UCAB and of business management of hydrocarbons at the Institute of Higher Studies in Administration (IESA) in Caracas.

Since proclaiming himself interim president on January 23 and leading the popular movement to overthrow the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The Maduro regime has come under increasing international pressure, with Guadio recognized as interim president by more than 40 governments, including the US, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and the UK.

Manuel Quevedo, a former brigadier general in the National Guard with no previous oil experience before being posted to the position by Maduro in late 2017, as the head of PDVSA and oil minister. In his capacity as Venezuela's top OPEC representative, Quevedo holds the rotating OPEC presidency for 2019.

Guaido has also announced plans to revamp the board of PDVSA's embattled US refining and marketing unit, Citgo Petroleum, to ease political pressures on the company.

-- Staff, newsdesk@spglobal.com

-- Newsdesk-Venezuela, newsdesk@spglobal.com

-- Edited by Richard Rubin, newsdesk@spglobal.com