Caracas, Venezuela ? President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela’s oil industry, paralyzed by a five-week strike, was recovering and would reach full capacity in 45 days. Oil executives scoffed at the claim, saying exports were still a trickle of pre-strike levels.

Oil represents 30 percent of Venezuela’s $100 billion gross domestic product and 70 percent of exports. Venezuela is the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter and a major U.S. provider. The 32-day-old strike has helped push international oil prices above $30 per barrel.

In Brazil, where he attended Wednesday’s inauguration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Chavez said Thursday that Venezuela was producing 800,000 barrels of crude a day, up from 200,000 barrels at the low point of the strike.

In Venezuela, striking executives with the state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela insisted production was 190,000 barrels a day. Fewer than 10 oil tankers have left the oil city of Maracaibo since the strike began Dec. 2, compared with more than 50 in a normal month.