Three reasons I can think of regarding the need for sealing the settlement agreement:

1.- The Gvt. does not want the Vzlan. people and Congress (controlled by the oposition) to know about the deal, since there is a political cost involved, and Congress can declare it to be against the best interest of the country and renege it. This specially at a time when the Vzlan. people cannot get food and medicines while the Gvt. is using the few dollars it is getting to pay bondholders and judicial creditors.

2. Those benefiting from the deal in an unreasonable or illegal manner do not want the terms to be disclosed and thus expose their trickery. Corruptcion in Venezuela is rampant, and it needs obscurity to operate,

3.- The suit against PDVSA as an Alter Ego of Vzla. involves a great deal of risk for the Gvt. and exposes it to similar suits from those that have ICSID awards going through the US courts (e.g. Rusoro) or will be soon pursuing their own award collection efforts (e.g. Conoco Phillips).