Venezuela, which has the largest crude reserves on the planet, has defied predictions of default since the oil collapse started in 2014, and analysts are split as to how long the nation of 30 million can hold out. With that in mind, Bloomberg is taking a close look each month at some of the key components that may determine its fate. After weeks of tense negotiations, state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela said last week that creditors holding $2.8 billion of bonds that come due over the next year agreed to extend maturities.

Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy has been hit by falling oil prices and what critics say is government mismanagement of state resources, reports Anatoly Kurmanaev, The Wall Street Journal Energy Journal blog reported. Oil accounts for 96% of the Latin American country’s exports. Venezuela’s crude production was 2.3 million barrels a day in September, 11% lower than a year earlier, according to government figures, and the consulting firm Medley & Associates expects the fall to accelerate in the next 12 months.

To most investors, Venezuela looks less like a market than a mess. The IMF expects output to shrink by 10% this year and inflation to exceed 700%, The Economist reported. As the bolívar’s value has plunged, multinational firms have announced billions of dollars of write-downs. For much of this year, however, some strong-stomached investors have scented an opportunity. They rushed to buy bonds issued by the government and by the state-owned oil company, PDVSA. They have been rewarded handsomely.

Venezuela's government-run oil giant -- the country's largest source of cash -- is warning that it could default on its bonds as early as next week, CNN reported. Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, failed to get investors to agree on a deal to push back debt payments by three years. The company said it is extending its deadline for a third time so investors can accept a deal by Friday night. This time, it warned that things could get messy.

Venezuela’s state-owned oil company offered an improved deal to bondholders as it seeks to push back debt payments coming due this year and next, Bloomberg News reported today. Petroleos de Venezuela SA said that it will pay investors as much as 1.22 times the face value of the notes they hold in exchange for longer-maturity securities, after offering no price premium in a proposal Sept. 16. While the original swap offer was for $7.1 billion of bonds, PDVSA said yesterday that it wouldn’t swap more than $5.325 billion of securities.

Venezuela’s petroleum industry, whose vast revenues once fueled the country’s Socialist-inspired revolution, underwriting everything from housing to education, is spiraling into disarray, the International New York Times reported. To add insult to injury, the Venezuelan government has been forced to turn to its nemesis, the United States, for help.

An international arbitration tribunal has ordered Venezuela to pay a Vancouver-based mining company more than $1.2 billion ($1.5 billion Cdn.) for expropriating its gold mines. Venezuela took over Rusoro Mining’s investments in the country as part of a nationalization of the gold industry in 2011, the Toronto Star reported on a Canadian Press story. Rusoro Mining Ltd. said Tuesday the money is due immediately and it expects that Venezuela will comply with its international obligations.

Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro’s decision to reopen the border with Colombia grants his countrymen a lifeline of crossing into frontier towns to buy what they need. Five border crossings opened Saturday under a plan announced by the presidents of both countries to gradually normalize movement. Cars will be allowed to cross in a month. But for now, traffic is limited to pedestrians, meaning for many of 54,000 Venezuelans who crossed over, how much they take home depends not only on what they can afford, but also how much they can carry.

With Venezuela's economy veering into depression and Venezuelans scrambling to find basic goods, the government's decision to keep servicing the country’s $68bn in external bonds has been called everything from “crazy” to “a crime against humanity.” Putting bondholders above Venezuelans, these critics argue, is just morally wrong, Bloomberg News reported. But such charged rhetoric is no substitute for a sober analysis of Venezuela's debt predicament. Seen in that light, the wisdom of defaulting is less clear cut.

Venezuela’s bonds are soaring on speculation the government may be looking to strike a deal to push back looming debt maturities, a move that would give the cash-strapped nation desperately needed breathing room, Bloomberg News reported today. State-owned oil producer Petroleos de Venezuela SA has seen its $3 billion of bonds due in April jump 5.3 cents this week to 69 cents on the dollar, the highest September 2014.