Company plans to swap 2016, 2017 bonds for longer-dated debt PDVSA has $4.1 billion of bond payments yet to make this year Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s bonds surged to a two-year high as Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said the state-owned oil company is close to announcing a $7 billion plan to exchange notes due this year and next for debt with a longer maturity. PDVSA’s $3 billion of bonds due in April 2017 rose 3.14 cents to 71.41 cents on the dollar at 4:54 p.m. in New York, reaching the highest since September 2014. Traders pared back bets on an imminent default, with credit default swaps now showing a 51 percent probability the company will miss payments over the next year, down from 61 percent three months ago. Pushing back the due date on its debt would give PDVSA some breathing room after a plunge in oil prices, […]