
Venezuela's state-owned oil firm PDVSA said Friday it has started to repay US$233 million in interest on two bonds nearing default, days before the end of the 30-day grace period. Writing on Twitter, the company announced the transfer process was started to pay the interest on the PDVSA 8,5% 2020 Bonds and the PDVSA 6% 2022 Bonds.

Venezuela's foreign debt renegotiation committee will meet with creditors at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Monday at the government's White Palace in downtown Caracas, the finance minister said on Saturday.

Venezuela on Thursday announced plans to restructure its burgeoning foreign debt, a move that may lead to a default by the cash-strapped OPEC nation whose collapsing socialist economy has left its population struggling to find food and medicine.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA began making a major bond payment, easing short-term worries about default but leaving the populist government with less cash to attend to food shortages and economic depression.

One week before Venezuela faces a critical debt payment, the distressed country is already late on a series of smaller bills. The nation's state-owned oil giant, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA, has two major bond payments totaling about US$2 billion coming due in the next two weeks.

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro has said that a preliminary analysis shows that new financial sanctions imposed by the United States will lead to a halt in oil exports to the US. President Trump's order bans trade in Venezuelan debt and blocks its state oil firm from selling bonds in the US.

Venezuela's state-run PDVSA has reduced crude sales to its U.S. refining unit Citgo Petroleum while increasing supply to Russia's Rosneft, following a plan signed in May to catch up on overdue deliveries, according to PDVSA documents, sources from the company and its joint ventures.

Japanese investment bank has admitted it was part of a controversial deal with Goldman Sachs to buy Venezuelan government bonds. Nomura Securities said it also bought about US$100m worth of the bonds last week, according to Reuters reports. Goldman Sachs has faced fierce criticism for its purchase of $2.8bn worth of similar bonds.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tossed out a lower court's ruling that had allowed a US oil drilling company to sue Venezuela over the seizure of 11 drilling rigs in 2010 but allowed the business another chance to press its claims.

Venezuela has donated US$500,000 to US President Donald Trump's inauguration, newly released records show. Citgo Petroleum, a US-based subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, is named in papers filed with the Federal Election Commission.