Venezuela’s PDVSA Falls Behind on Payments to Oil Service Firms

Venezuela’s state-owned energy company is struggling to pay its bills as cash flow dries up due to rock-bottom oil prices.

Petroleos de Venezuela SA has fallen several months behind on payments to oil service companies and other suppliers that keep its oil business running, a source of concern for many in the industry.


Oil company executives say PdVSA, as Venezuela’s flagship firm is known, stopped paying service firms in August and the debt to all suppliers may have risen by as much as $3 billion. As of September, bills owed to suppliers stood at $7.86 billion, a 39% jump from the same nine-month period in 2007, according to PdVSA figures.

French oil services company Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) and U.S. firm Halliburton Co. (HAL) are now owed a combined $800 million to $1 billion by some estimates. Officials at both companies declined to comment on the matter.

“We’re having a hard time, just as many other firms in a similar position around the world,” Eudomario Carruyo, a PdVSA board member and head of finance told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. “Our revenues just got cut in half.”

Dow Jones Newswires