"We request you to immediately honor any pending payment
obligations from fuel sales," it wrote to station operators last
week. "PDVSA needs its income to be fluid in order to sustain
fuel production, storage, transportation and supply structure."
The request to settle pending balances has focused on
stations that sell in U.S. dollars and have not fully paid
PDVSA, sources said. Failure to pay could jeopardize fuel
supplies, PDVSA warned.
PDVSA and Venezuela's Federation of Motor Fuel Selling
Businessmen did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Under strict currency exchange controls, Venezuela had sold
its domestic fuel at heavily subsidized prices in local
currency. But fuel scarcity and a need for hard currency led it
to allow some stations that independent owners ran to receive
dollar payments in recent years.
The dollar-denominated income from those domestic sales has
become key for the company's cash flow amid U.S. sanctions
limiting the OPEC country's oil exports.
PDVSA CEO Pedro Tellechea, who became oil minister last
month, wants to settle pending bills before approving new
contracts. Suspending fuel deliveries could worsen an
intermittent scarcity from 2020.
In the letter to operators, PDVSA's domestic market division
chief Gustavo Bravo reminded stations about the need to maintain
accounts and said PDVSA would take "administrative and legal
action" against unfulfilled payments.
An unknown number of station operators in recent weeks have
received account balances from PDVSA, one of the sources said.
"If outstanding balances are not paid in 72 hours, they
activate a credit hold and fuel supply to stations is
suspended," said a station owner.
(Reporting by Mircely Guanipa in Punto Fijo, Tibisay Romero in
Valencia and Deisy Buitrago in Caracas; Writing by Marianna
Parraga; Editing by Josie Kao)
By Mircely Guanipa, Tibisay Romero and Deisy Buitrago
PUNTO FIJO/VALENCIA/CARACAS April 17 (Reuters) -
V enezuelan state oil company PDVSA has asked gas station
operators to immediately pay outstanding bills, according to
sources and a company document seen by Reuters on Monday, as the
firm faces an anti-corruption probe and expands a receivables
audit.
The government since last year has been investigating PDVSA,
where commercial accounts receivable climbed to more than $20
billion. The probe has led to a wide-ranging review of
contracts, the arrests of dozens of people and a shake-up of top
oil officials.
PDVSA has put many oil and fuel supply contracts on hold,
called in clients to settle accounts and added new customers to
its registry of approved companies.
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