(Bloomberg) -- Petroleos Mexicanos raised less money than expected to refinance some of its outstanding debt to suppliers this week, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The company sold $1.5 billion in bonds due 2029, said the people, who weren’t allowed to speak on the record, compared with the $2 billion they had planned to raise according to a press release on Tuesday. The debt was sold to yield 9.25%, above the 8.75% coupon.

The head of Pemex and Mexico’s Finance Ministry will provide information about the state oil company’s bonds on Monday, said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at a press briefing on Thursday. In the meantime, its debt due in 2050 is falling, dropping 4 cents this week to trade at 75.9 cents on the dollar. 

Pemex, whose debt is the highest of any major oil company, at $108.1 billion, has struggled to pay its suppliers and service providers in recent years amid a huge tax burden, weak oil production and resources being drained to cover its unprofitable refining arm. Pemex owed its suppliers 72.6 billion pesos ($3.7 billion) at the end of the first quarter.

The bond sale raised questions among investors about why Pemex is not generating enough cash to pay short term debt with current high oil prices, said Aaron Gifford, an emerging-market sovereign-debt analyst at T. Rowe Price Group in Baltimore.

“This transaction left a bad taste in investors’ mouths,” Gifford said. “What is going to prevent Pemex from doing this again in six months?”

A Pemex representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company received $5.4 billion more in revenue than it had budgeted for in the first five months of the year from its oil sales abroad amid the global price rally. The government has said that it will no longer cover Pemex’s amortization payments, which it had absorbed last year.

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