PDVSA's supplier debts have 'vanished'

[Judi Lynn]

PDVSA's supplier debts have 'vanished'
PDVSA’s debts to oil-service suppliers have “vanished,” Venezuelan state oil company boss Rafael Ramirez said today.
News wires Friday, 15 January, 2010, 21:36 GMT

The company owed oil-service suppliers, including drilling companies Schlumberger and Helmerich & Payne, as much as $5 billion in October and had debts of $7.56 billion at the end of 2008.

“The debts vanished,” Ramirez told reporters in Caracas. “We’re up to date with our service providers and in a situation of equilibrium.”

PDVSA sold $6.3 billion of bonds last year to help reduce debts, and also cut managers’ pay by 20% after first-half profit fell 67% from the year- earlier period, Bloomberg reported.

In early 2009, Venezuela cut more than 300,000 barrels per day of production to comply with Opec quotas to bolster the price of oil.

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article203808.ece