Overview
- Prices climbed from about 32 cents on Friday to above 40 cents on Monday after the fall of Nicolás Maduro and a U.S. intervention reported over the weekend.
- Venezuela has roughly $60 billion in defaulted bonds, with total external obligations estimated at $150–$170 billion against an IMF‑projected 2025 GDP of about $82.8 billion.
- A Delaware court has recorded around $19 billion in claims tied to the planned auction of PDV Holding, the Citgo parent, a sum that exceeds Citgo’s estimated asset value.
- Key creditors include international bondholders, arbitration award winners such as ConocoPhillips and Crystallex, and bilateral lenders led by China and Russia.
- A formal restructuring is expected to be slow and complex as U.S. sanctions curb transactions, tanker blockades pressure revenues, and Venezuela remains outside normal IMF engagement.