Creditors of the state-owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA are looking to the funds available in an oil company account in Portugal’s Novo Banco, in a bid to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid debts.
Puerto Rican Bank Banco San Juan Internacional (BSJI) obtained a court order from a Lisbon court in July to receive funds from a $1.3 billion account in Novo Banco as compensation for PDVSA’s default on its credit agreement. BSJI in 2018, according to court documents seen by Reuters.
US glass manufacturer OI Glass and Houston-based oil company ConocoPhillips have sought similar orders to receive their payments in exchange for the asset’s nationalization, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the total requests for payment of Novo Banco’s account amount to nearly 600 million US dollars.
The moves represent a new front in long-term debt-collection efforts in Venezuela, which has a hyperinflated economy and faces US sanctions aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro, who has cut off the country’s access to most assets in the system. Financial.
Maduro’s socialist government is facing an economic meltdown in the once prosperous OPEC nation, which has failed to repay more than $60 billion in bonds. The country still owes billions more in court rulings.
BSJI won an $83.9 million judgment against PDVSA in November after the company was sued in the UK, with the parties agreeing to settle disputes, according to a British court document. The court rejected PDVSA’s argument that it could not pay due to US sanctions, according to the document.
A judge in a district court in Lisbon granted the institute on July 8 the right to confiscate funds held in Novo Banco, according to a Portuguese court document.
