Venezuela embarks on $150 billion restructuring of sovereign, oil debt
Interim President of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez speaks at a press conference following the signing of the agreement between Chevron Venezuela and the national government at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas on April 13, 2026. Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, praised the progress made on foreign investment in the oil sector, as part of the April 13 signing of agreements with US giant Chevron to increase crude oil production. (Photo: Juan BARRETO / AFP via Getty Images)
Juan Barreto | Afp | Getty Images
The Venezuelan government announced Wednesday that it has launched a “comprehensive and orderly process” to restructure massive government and state oil company debt.
Venezuela’s ministry of economy and finance said in a statement that the aim was to “put the economy at the service of the Venezuelan people and save the country from the burden of accumulated debt.”
“Venezuela has demonstrated its solvency over the years by fully complying with all its international obligations. This capacity and willingness to meet our financial commitments has been disrupted since 2017 as a result of financial sanctions,” the government said. he said.
“For too long the country has been deprived of normal access to finance and its economy has lost the capacity to invest in health, electricity, water, education, infrastructure, productive recovery and the well-being of the population.”
The restructuring process aims to guarantee significant debt relief that will be used for the benefit of the country and its people, officials said.
“Venezuela will fulfill its commitments in a sustainable manner, and will do so under the conditions that the Venezuelan people deserve, building a solid path to restore prosperity, justice and social equality,” the statement said.
In 2017, during his first term as president, Donald Trump imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela in an attempt to restrict the Maduro regime’s access to capital.
In an extraordinary US military operation in January, American troops captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He was brought to the United States, where he and his wife, Cilia Flores, were indicted on narco-terrorism conspiracy and other charges.
Both Maduro and Flores have denied any wrongdoing.
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro attends a hearing in a narco-terrorism case accusing him of running a cartel of Venezuelan officials who flooded the United States with cocaine, March 26, 2026, at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in New York City in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Foreign sanctions have severely affected the Venezuelan economy over the past decade, with the country unable to pay its debts and public sector liabilities increasing.
Thank you for independent financial thinking OMFIFVenezuela’s defaulted debts total at least $150 billion, or more than 200% of its gross domestic product. The country stopped paying its public debts as it entered hyperinflation in 2017.
But relations appear to have thawed under interim President Delcy Rodriguez. Trump administration in April lifted Sanctions against the Rodriguez government Trump said earlier this year that Venezuela would send sanctioned oil to the United States and that this oil would be sold at market prices, the revenue of which would be controlled by the White House.
He also said American oil majors would invest billions of dollars to revive Venezuela’s oil industry.
Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, has the world’s largest proven oil reserves at 303 billion barrels, or 17% of global reserves. US Energy Information Administration.
On Tuesday, Trump posted a map on Truth Social labeling Venezuela as the “51st state” of the United States.
Last month, the IMF and World Bank restarted their relationship with Venezuela, paving the way for a full IMF assessment of the Venezuelan economy for the first time in nearly 20 years. Such a move could eventually unlock billions of dollars in financing through frozen special drawing rights.
The organizations paused their relations with Venezuela in 2019 due to government recognition problems. Past election results, in which Maduro was declared the winner, were controversial and sparked protests in the capital Caracas.
Investors’ appetite for Venezuelan government bonds has increased since the US deposed Maduro in January; banknotes gained value immediately after America’s extraordinary military operation in the country.
The price of the country’s benchmark 10-year government bond has nearly doubled since January and rose further on Wednesday following news of debt restructuring plans. The value of bonds issued by state-owned oil company PDVSA has also increased this year and rose again in Wednesday’s trading session.
Venezuela said on Wednesday it expects to present its macroeconomic framework and public debt sustainability analysis to the international financial community next month.
