Venezuela Halts Nearly All Oil Exports Amid Payment Probe

Crude oil exports from Venezuela have all but dried up as the government investigates oil contracts with a mountain of unpaid oil purchase bills to the tune of $21 billion. According to Reuters, the investigation, which has so far seen at least 20 arrests and the resignation of Venezuela’s oil minister, is now at a stage where invoices for oil sold are being matched with payments made, according to unnamed sources and documents. While this goes on, state-owned PDVSA is exporting almost no oil with just four buyers scheduled to take off from…