PDVSA: $5.2 bln Bond Payments Made

Venezuela's PDVSA has paid $4.2 billion in bond maturities and interest in recent days, and will shortly pay another $1 billion, the state oil company's president told a local newspaper on Thursday.

PDVSA's $1.41 billion 2015 bond matured at the end of October and a $2.05 billion amortization payment on its 2017 bond came due this week.

"We've just paid capital plus interest of $4.2 billion, and in the next few days we will cancel another $1 billion - between this and next week - in interest on other bonds maturing in different years, between 2022 and 2037," PDVSA President and Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino was quoted as saying by El Mundo.

On its website, the El Mundo daily also said PDVSA was planning to renegotiate some of its 2016 and 2017 debt, but it gave no more details.

Venezuela's economy is struggling under a combination of low oil prices and dysfunctional price and currency controls, with shortages widespread and inflation the highest in the world.

PDVSA and the government must make some $10 billion in principal and interest payments on foreign bonds next year, similar to the total for 2015.

President Nicolas Maduro says, however, that Wall Street concerns over possible default on foreign debt are ill-founded and intended to destabilize Venezuela as part of an "economic war" against socialism in the OPEC nation.

Writing by Andrew Cawthorne