Caracas leans on Beijing, again

摘要

Cash-strapped Venezuela is proposing that China allows a one-year postponement of principal payments on its oil-backed debt, in its latest attempt to replenish the embattled government’s depleted coffers. Venezuelan energy minister Eulogio Del Pino plans to visit China soon to pursue a debt renegotiation package, hoping to secure about $8bn in fresh cash and postponed payments on state-owned oil firm PdV’s oil-backed debt to state-owned China Development Bank (CDB). Del Pino is seeking an agreement with CDB and Chinese state-owned energy company CNPC to postpone principal payments on the debt for one year. PdV’s oil-backed debt to China is paid with crude. PdV shipped about 600,000 b/d to Chinese companies last year, half of which was loan payments and generated no revenue for PdV.