CARACAS: Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA has given Paraguay a 10-day deadline to pay a US$287 million debt for crude oil sales dating back to 2009.
Felipe Oddone, communications director for Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes, said his country would, for now, only be able to pay 50 percent of the debt. Oddone on Saturday said the president of Paraguay’s state oil company, Petroleos Paraguayos, had received a note from the Venezuelan firm “giving a deadline of 10 days to pay or else an international demand would be initiated.”
He also said that, according to Petroleos Paraguayos’ figures, the debt is only US$273 million.