Petró leos de Venezuela SA missed $404 million in coupon payments on three of its bonds, highlighting the continued struggles of the Venezuelan state oil company.

The company, which is often known as PdVSA, failed to make payments last week on bonds maturing in 2021, 2024 and 2035, according to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. In a note to clients, J.P. Morgan cited reports from PdVSA's paying agent Citigroup and Clearstream, a clearinghouse that handles the payments. PdVSA didn't respond to a request for comment.

PdVSA now is in technical default and will have a 30-day grace period to cure the default if it makes the payments, J.P. Morgan said.

"We still believe PdVSA will make these payments," the J.P. Morgan analysts said. They pointed to Venezuela's reported $10.9 billion international reserves as of Nov. 17 and the company's recent efforts to reduce its cash drain by extending the term of some bonds using a debt swap.

The missed payments hit a nerve among investors because many are worried Venezuela, whose oil industry constitutes the lifeblood of its struggling economy, is believed by many to be on the verge of default. Despite the concerns, Venezuela hasn't missed any debt payment since 2002, according to Russ Dallen, a managing partner at Caracas Capital.

PdVSA paid more than $2 billion over the past two months to its bondholders. It also made a $135 million interest payment on its 2026 notes on Tuesday, before missing payments on the three bonds on Wednesday and Thursday.

Last month, PdVSA swapped $2.8 billion of 2017 notes for debt maturing in 2020, after several rounds of extensions. The debt exchange provided some relief to the struggling oil company, as it helped reduce its short-term cash squeeze.

PdVSA bonds maturing in 2035 traded at 46.5 cents on dollar of par value, up from 45 cents last week. The bond currently yields 22.3%. PdVSA bond prices generally have fallen significantly since the U.S. election on Nov. 8, reflecting in part sharp increases in the value of the dollar and questions about how Trump administration policies might affect global trade.

Write to Carolyn Cui at carolyn.cui@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 21, 2016 18:55 ET (23:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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