cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49590174

• China’s cooperation in global debt deals at risk, restructuring experts say
• Trump’s oil revenue leverage could impact debtholders’ claims
• Venezuela, China agreed on oil as payment since 2019 sanctions

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.

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.

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AidData, a research lab at the U.S. university William & Mary that tracks lending, said some cash proceeds from oil sent to China went into an account controlled by Beijing and on to service the debt - even as ‍sanctions and default blocked payments to many of Venezuela’s other creditors.

The Trump administration has now said that proceeds from the sale of Venezuela’s oil will go into a Qatar-based account controlled by Washington, potentially giving the U.S. President himself substantial leverage over which creditors get paid, and when.

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