Debt-laden Brazilian telecoms provider Oi SA could benefit from a third-party capital injection, but the company should focus on talks between creditors and shareholders before engaging new strategic investors, its chief executive said. In a Monday interview regarding third-quarter results, CEO Marco Schroeder said he thought it was “extremely important” that a long-delayed creditors meeting be held on Dec. 7 even if creditors and shareholders had not reached an agreement, Reuters reported.

Venezuela’s state electricity company was declared in default by the trustee for its bonds after it failed to make a $27.6 million interest payment, Bloomberg News reported. The electric utility, however, said that the cash was sent Nov. 8 and was being held up due to “operational changes.” Traders had long suspected that Elecar’s $650 million in notes coming due next year could be a candidate for the cash-strapped government to stop paying as it struggles to stay current on its debt.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Venezuela is set to pump the least oil in almost three decades, just when it needs petrodollars the most. Output is expected to slump to 1.84 million barrels a day next year, the lowest compared with official government data since 1989, according to a survey with four analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Rig counts hit a 14-year low in October, as drilling companies including Schlumberger Ltd. reduce their exposure in the nation due to unpaid bills. Owner of crude reserves larger than Saudi Arabia’s, Venezuela is teetering on the brink of default.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Venezuela and Russia have agreed on terms for restructuring about $3 billion of the Latin American country’s debt and the deal will come soon, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in Moscow. “The Venezuelans have confirmed the terms we’d agreed on, and that’s why the process will move into the concluding phase,” Siluanov told reporters on Wednesday. Russia had offered to reschedule debt payments over two stages, with payments on most of the state loan to be delayed to the second phase, Siluanov said late last month.

The law firm representing a bondholder group in debt-laden Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA has asked a court to nullify decisions made by the company’s board, according to a copy of the motion seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The motion by law firms including Pinheiro Neto Advogados, which represents the so-called Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders, asked the court in Rio de Janeiro to suspend appointments the board made on Friday of two members of Oi’s management, Reuters report.

Venezuela is stumbling closer to a full-blown, formal default on its debts, with bondholders reporting that they had yet to receive the full bond payment that was due last Friday and a finance industry body now about to decide whether default insurance should be paid out, the Financial Times reported. Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro last week announced that the country would have to restructure its foreign debt pile, but promised to make one last $1.1bn payment on a bond issued by PDVSA, the state oil company.

Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s credit grade was cut to one notch above default by Fitch Ratings in the aftermath of President Nicolas Maduro’s announcement that the country intends to restructure its global debt, including that of the state-run oil producer, Bloomberg News reported. Fitch lowered PDVSA’s rating to C from CC, citing last week’s announcement by the Venezuelan government, and a missed payment on the company’s bonds due 2027. The grace period for the $81 million interest payment, which was due last month, expires on Monday.

The head of Brazil’s telecommunications watchdog, Anatel, demanded on Monday that debt-laden carrier Oi SA submit its latest restructuring proposal to the regulator before officially filing it with a bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. Anatel head Juarez Quadros told reporters in Brasilia that the regulator, an Oi creditor due to billions of dollars in unpaid regulatory fines, would wait for the country’s solicitor-general to give an opinion on the company’s proposal before deciding whether or not to vote for it.

The board of Brazil´s Oi SA has approved a change to the restructuring proposal of the debt-laden telecom provider to be submitted to creditors on Monday, the company said in a securities filing. Terms of the proposed changes will be filed by the company with the court in Rio de Janeiro that oversees Latin America´s largest-ever bankruptcy proceeding, which aims to restructure 65 billion reais in debt, Reuters reported.

Brazil’s Odebrecht Oil & Gas filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Friday to help implement a previously announced multibillion-dollar debt restructuring, The Wall Street Journal reported. Odebrecht Oil & Gas, an arm of engineering conglomerate Odebrecht SA, sought chapter 15 protection, the section of the bankruptcy code that deals with international insolvencies, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Large foreign companies, particularly those with U.S. operations or dollar-denominated debt, often file for bankruptcy in the U.S.