MARACAIBO, Venezuela–State energy company Petroleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA, has paid off some 76% of its more than 5,000 service providers who have reported long delays before receiving payments owed by the oil giant, Venezuela Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Thursday. Mr. Ramirez declined to specify in dollar terms how much was paid of the company’s total debt to service providers, which rose 35% last year to $16.7 billion. However, he said officials aimed to erase the remaining 24% of owed money over the next two months. “We want to start 2014, a year of production increases, with a private sector that doesn’t have the pressure of the debt,” Mr. Ramirez told investors at an oil conference. “We are fixing all of our affairs with private companies,” he added. PdVSA, which is the breadwinner for Venezuela’s economy and finances the government’s politically important social programs for […]