CARACAS/WILLEMSTAD--Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA’s consolidated financial debt fell roughly 4.3 per cent in 2015 compared with the previous year to around US $43.8 billion, the company said on Friday, a figure that does not include debts to service providers.
PDVSA faces about $5.2 billion in debt payments this year as Venezuela, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is being buffeted by low world oil prices and a severe economic recession.
Oil Minister and PDVSA President Eulogio del Pino lauded the drop in financial debt amid the energy price squeeze.
“This is a big achievement, considering the unfavourable situation our country went through last year with the fall of oil prices,” Del Pino said on Thursday, before the results were formally announced in a local newspaper on Friday.
Price hawk Venezuela has repeatedly called for an emergency meeting of the cartel to discuss steps to prop up prices. But OPEC’s Gulf members have so far rebuffed the push for a special meeting.
The report also showed PDVSA had debts of around $30.2 billion in bonds at the end of 2015, down from $33.3 billion a year earlier.
The debt of the company’s US unit Citgo Petroleum rose to around $2.2 billion in bonds, compared with $742 million in 2014.
PDVSA’s full annual results are usually published around April. ~ Curaçao Chronicle ~
