Venezuela oil giant PDVSA plans more bonds - paper

* Venezuelan company plans to trade bonds in Hong Kong

By Daniel Wallis

CARACAS, March 15 (Reuters) - Venezuela's state oil giant PDVSA will continue to issue new bonds and it is "absurd" to suggest that the company's finances are not healthy, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said in comments published in the Caracas newspaper El Mundo on Thursday.

Ramirez, who is also president of PDVSA, said: "We don't have a fixed date now for any new issue, but certainly we could do it at any time because they are mechanisms to leverage our development."

PDVSA's debt has sky-rocketed in recent years as the leftist government of President Hugo Chavez increased social spending, backed by funds from the oil company. Critics say that is hindering ambitious efforts to boost output to 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2012, from 3 million bpd in 2011.

Last week, Ramirez told Reuters that PDVSA is planning to trade bonds on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, but had no plans to issue new notes in the short term.

On Thursday, Ramirez was not immediately available for comment on the newspaper report, in which he also rejected criticism of the company.

"It is so absurd, the position of these analysts - in inverted commas - who say that any company that looks for financing is broke," Ramirez, who is also president of PDVSA, told El Mundo. "No company carries forward its investment plan with its own cash flow. No one does it."

PDVSA's debt owed to creditors grew by more than a third last year to almost $35 billion. Last year, it issued debt worth more than $10.3 billion.

The company separately owes billions of dollars to suppliers. It has not given an up-to-date overall figure for that - but says that it accumulated another $9 billion during the first six months of 2011 alone - a record high for a half-year period.

Ramirez told El Mundo PDVSA invested $16 billion last year, less than the $18 billion that was planned at the end of 2010.

Sources at companies working with PDVSA say delays by PDVSA paying its partners are slowing important projects - including in the vast Orinoco crude belt, where most of the country's future production is expected to come from.

PDVSA's bonds are widely traded and some Wall Street analysts expect it to issue more debt this year.

Last week, Ramirez said Chinese state investment company CITIC will be the agent trading PDVSA's bonds in Hong Kong as the Venezuelan company moves to diversify its funding options.

In 2005, it voluntarily withdrew its registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in an effort to avoid financial reporting requirements in the United States. During Chavez's administration, its bonds have traded on the Luxembourg bourse. (Editing by W Simon)