Lawyers representing Venezuela told a U.S. court this week that the value ​of Venezuela-owned U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum has increased since the sale of its parent ‌company was ordered late last year, which should prevent the execution of the process, Reuters reported. A Delaware judge in November approved a $5.9 billion bid for Citgo's parent company PDV Holding from Amber Energy, an affiliate of hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, ​following a court-organized auction of shares to pay creditors. The sale is still awaiting approval from the ​U.S. Treasury Department, and a U.S.

Venezuela said Wednesday it would begin a process of restructuring its towering government debt, seeking to take advantage of warming relations with the U.S. to normalize ties with creditors and regain access to international financial markets, the Wall Street Journal reported. With a public debt load estimated as high as $170 billion, Venezuela’s restructuring promises to be one of the largest and most complex efforts to renegotiate sovereign debt, economists say. The country went into default in 2017.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Wednesday defeated an appeal by a Puerto Rican lender ‌whose access to the U.S. central banking system was cut off in a ‌crackdown on lenders with links to Venezuela, Reuters reported. In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in ​Manhattan rejected Banco San Juan Internacional's (BSJI) claim that the Federal Reserve Act entitled it to a "master account," which lets banks access the Fed's electronic payment system. BSJI ⁠sued in 2023 after learning that its 11-year-old account would be closed over concerns it was not complying with U.S.

Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, has hired law firm White & Case to protect its interests in the pending Citgo Petroleum sale as the country girds for a debt restructuring, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday authorized Venezuela and PdVSA to hire advisers to help execute what is considered one of the largest and most complex sovereign-debt restructurings in history.

Venezuela's inflation rate ‌eased to 10.6% in April from 13.1% in March, the country's central bank said ​on Monday, Reuters reported. The inflation rate so far ​in 2026 has reached 90%, the ⁠bank said on its website, ​while according to Reuters calculations based on ​central bank figures the annualized inflation rate is 611.86%. "Our economy is healthy; it's doing well," ​the bank's acting president, Luis ​Perez, said in an interview on state TV, ‌in ⁠which he predicted single-digit inflation for May. Perez added that the bank did not alter figures to make them ​more positive.

When potential providers and financiers for Venezuela's electric industry, including Siemens Energy and GE Vernova, held meetings with officials in Caracas in April, questions of how they might get paid to shore up the country's deteriorated grid were top of mind, Reuters reported. Those executives came away hesitant, the sources said, as ‌the nation tries to jumpstart a $100 billion reconstruction plan pushed by Washington.

The United States has extended a license that protects Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum ​from creditors through May 5, according to a posting on ‌Thursday on the Treasury Department's website, Reuters reported. The extension comes a day after Washington issued a general license broadly authorizing U.S. companies to do business with Citgo's ultimate parent, ​Caracas-headquartered Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA. The general license is seen ​as a key step to encourage investment and further ⁠oil output in Venezuela, and also reinforces U.S.

Two global trading houses that brokered an opaque deal with the Trump administration this month to sell Venezuelan oil were previously prosecuted for bribery schemes involving oil sales elsewhere, court records show, underscoring concerns by anti-corruption experts and lawmakers that the arrangement is vulnerable to abuse, the Washington Post reported. The administration granted confidential licenses to Vitol and Trafigura in early January to sell Venezuelan oil with little independent oversight.

A proposed reform of Venezuela's oil law is enough to encourage companies working in the country to expand and for some new entrants to begin investing, but deeper reforms would be necessary to attract the $100 billion the U.S. says is required to revamp the nation's energy sector, foreign and local executives and lawyers said, Reuters reported. The U.S. has taken control of Venezuela's oil exports and revenue following a military incursion to capture President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month, and a naval blockade to stop oil shipments on sanctioned vessels since December.

U.S. control of Venezuela's oil exports has ensnared barrels that had been servicing debt to China, lining up another potential showdown between the two superpowers that could further complicate the South American country's path out of default, Reuters reported. Around a tenth ​of Venezuela's $150 billion foreign debt pile is estimated to be loans from China that the OPEC member was paying in oil cargoes — until the U.S. seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this ‌month. Debt experts said the ramifications of China's claim on the cargoes and any clash with the U.S.