Venezuelan crunch time
Venezuela faces steep bond payments before the end of the year. It is looking to Russia to help keep it from default
27 October will be a tense day for Venezuela's cash-strapped state oil company PdV and its bondholders. The company owes $0.84bn in principal payments on its PDVSA 2020 bond on the day. Unlike some other PdV debt, the 2020 bond does not have a provision for a grace period, so if PdV can't come up with the cash on the day, or there is a hiccup making the transfer to its payment agent Delaware Trust Company, PdV would be in default and one of the world's top oil producers would be plunged into a highly complex legal battle with its bondholders that would likely seize up its international business. The 27 October transaction is one of a string of payments PdV will have to make to bondholders to
Also in this section
1 August 2025
A number of companies have filed arbitration claims against Gazprom over non-deliveries of contracted gas or other matters—and won. The next step is to collect the award; this is no easy task but it can be done thanks to an international legal framework under the New York Convention.
1 August 2025
Europe’s refining sector is desperately trying to adapt to a shifting global energy landscape and nowhere is this more apparent than in its largest economy
1 August 2025
The Middle East natural gas playbook is being rewritten. The fuel source offers the region a pathway to a cleaner, sustainable and affordable means of local power, to fasttrack economic development and as a lucrative opportunity to better monetise its energy resources.
31 July 2025
TotalEnergies is an outlier among other majors for remaining committed to low-carbon investments while continuing to replenish and expand its ample oil and gas portfolio, with an appetite for high risk/high return projects.
