US Extends License for Chevron's Operations in Venezuela
The U.S. Treasury Department on Saturday renewed a license allowing Chevron, the last U.S. energy company operating in Venezuela, to continue working in the country until April 22.In January, the United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA in an effort to oust President Nicolas Maduro, though he remains in power. The Treasury issued Chevron a six-month license to operate, however, which has been renewed in three-month periods.Chevron has been in Venezuela for nearly 100 years and has about 300 direct employees there.
U.S. Court to Decide Who Will Control Citgo
A U.S. court will decide whether a board of directors appointed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro or one backed by his rival, opposition leader Juan Guaido, runs the eighth-largest U.S. refiner, Citgo Petroleum Corp.A lawsuit filed by Maduro's representatives on Tuesday in Delaware Chancery Court seeks to reassert control over Citgo , along with other U.S. subsidiaries of PDVSA , the Venezuelan state-run oil company.Citgo, Venezuela's most important foreign asset, has been caught in a tug-of-war as U.S. President Donald Trump's…
Citgo Loans Price in Potential Regime Change
The bank debt of oil refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp, US subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), has been volatile in recent days as Venezuela’s political crisis deepens and the market prices in a potential regime change in the South American nation.The company’s US$650m term loan B jumped in secondary trading this week, according to a trader monitoring the debt, after the Houston-headquartered company last Friday installed a new board of directors that is expected to enhance Citgo’s independence from its troubled parent…
CITGO Formally Cuts Ties with PDVSA
U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp is formally cutting ties with its parent, state-run oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA, to meet U.S. sanctions imposed on the OPEC country, two people close to the decision told Reuters on Tuesday.Executives at the Houston-based firm set a Feb. 26 deadline to end relationships with PDVSA following sanctions designed to curb oil revenues to socialist President Nicolas Maduro and support the nation's transition government formed by Venezuelan congress head Juan Guaido.The United States, Canada and dozens of other nations have recognized Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president…
Top Citgo Executives Removed as PDVSA Chaos Continues
Citgo Petroleum Corp has removed at least three top executives close to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, people familiar with the matter said on Monday, in a move to cement management control under a new board of directors.The U.S. refining arm of Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA has been thrust in recent weeks into the center of a political battle between an opposition leader and self-declared president backed by many Western nations, including the United States, and Maduro, a socialist whose re-election last year they…
Venezuela's Deals to Shield Citgo from Creditors in Doubt
Venezuela is facing the possible unraveling of a pair of billion-dollar settlements aimed at protecting the cash-strapped country's U.S.-based Citgo Petroleum Corp from seizure by creditors.A lawyer for Canadian mining company Crystallex International Corp said on Tuesday Venezuela had breached the $1.4 billion November agreement that resolved a long-running fight over an expropriated gold mine.Separately, Venezuela's $1.3 billion settlement in October with Rusoro Mining of Vancouver, also over expropriated mining assets, has been upended by U.S.
US Revokes Citgo CEO's Visa
Citgo Petroleum Corp, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA , said on Wednesday that the United States had revoked the visa of its president and chief executive Asdrubal Chavez, cousin of Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez, but it did not say why.Late on Wednesday U.S. State Department spokesman Noel Clay said the United States has broad authority to revoke visas, but does not discuss individual cases because they are confidential under U.S. law.A Citgo spokeswoman said in a statement that the "day-to…
Crews Responding to Fire at Citgo Corpus Christi East Plant
Crews were responding to a fire at the East Plant of Citgo Petroleum Corp's 157,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Corpus Christi refinery in Texas on Thursday, the Caller Times reported on its website.* A fire was found in between two tanks, the report said, adding the Refinery Terminal Fire Company was responding. [Source: https://bit.ly/2Hqpdxm ]* Earlier, a message on the local community alert system reported Citgo was responding to an incident confined inside the East Plant facility fence line.Reporting by Nithin Prasad in Bengaluru
Crystallex Pursues Citgo as Vens Miss Payment Deadline
Mining company Crystallex International Corp said on Thursday Venezuela failed to honor a settlement and urged a federal judge to allow it to seize control of U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp, which is owned by the country's state oil company. Canada-based Crystallex won a 2016 international arbitration award of $1.2 billion against Venezuela, which has refused to pay. The company had been trying to collect by seizing shares of Citgo's U.S. parent company, which is owned by Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. Last month Crystallex said it settled with cash-strapped Venezuela, but the company's lawyer said that deal fell through.
Venezuela Arrests Ex-oil Bosses
Venezuelan authorities on Thursday arrested two once-powerful officials who had run the oil ministry and state energy company PDVSA as part of a deepening industry purge also seen as a power play by leftist President Nicolas Maduro. In the highest-profile arrests to date, engineer Eulogio Del Pino and chemist Nelson Martinez were detained early on Thursday on accusations of graft and seeking to sabotage the nation's ailing energy industry, prosecutor Tarek Saab said in a televised speech. He accused Del Pino of participating in…
Retail Gasoline Prices Surge in Harvey's Choppy Wake
Nearly a quarter of U.S. refining capacity out; Motiva down for two weeks; Corpus Christi starts to reopen. Retail U.S. gasoline prices hit two-year highs and global shipping routes were scrambled as the nation's largest refiners remained shut on Friday, even as Harvey was losing strength. Major fuel pipelines feeding the U.S. Northeast and Midwest have been either closed or severely curtailed, prompting shortages in some areas and dramatic spikes in wholesale prices. The storm has roiled global fuel markets and tankers carrying millions of barrels of fuel have been rerouted to the Americas to avert shortages.
Harvey Throws a Wrench into US Energy Engine
A hurricane in the heart of the U.S. energy industry is expected to upend years of U.S. excess oil capacity and low prices, with the impact expected to reverberate globally and affect energy markets for weeks. Harvey hit the Texas shore as a fierce Category 4 hurricane, causing massive flooding that knocked out 11.2 percent of U.S. refining capacity, a quarter of oil production from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and closed ports all along the Texas coast. Gasoline futures jumped as much as 7 percent to their highest level in more than two years in early Monday trading in Asia as traders took stock of the storm's impact.
Venezuela Eyes Double-digit Yield on Citgo Debt Sale
Venezuela's US oil-refining unit Citgo will probably have to pay double-digit yields to lure investors into a US$2.5bn financing package aimed at pumping new cash into its state-owned parent PDVSA. With some US$10bn in debt payments due this year, cash-strapped Venezuela is pledging some of its most valuable assets abroad to raise new cash, as it fends off default worries amid a steep slide in crude oil prices. A US$1.5bn high-yield bond issue and a US$1bn senior secured five-year term loan will be sold through Citgo Holding Inc and secured by US$750m in midstream assets and a 49% pledge on the equity of Citgo Petroleum Corp, the operating entity.
Vens Cancels Citgo Auction
Venezuela has taken U.S. refining unit Citgo Petroleum Corp off the auction block and it will now seek to raise $2.5 billion in the debt market to provide funding for the cash-strapped country, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The auction was canceled in the last 48 hours on the advice of Citgo's lawyers after they told Citgo that if the company wished to raise funds in the debt market, it should remove itself from the auction block, the source added. Deutsche Bank has announced plans for a $1.5 billion bond to be issued by Citgo Holdings…
Citgo: U.S. Welfare Project to Continue
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said state oil company PDVSA's U.S. unit, Citgo Petroleum Corp, will continue a welfare project in the United States begun by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez. "Our plans with Citgo are to keep strengthening our investment," Maduro said in a speech late Tuesday in New York, adding it was already supplying heating oil to 150,000 low-income families around the United States. "We need to consolidate and improve the heating oil project ... so that working people on low resources and income do not die of cold in the winter," he added in his address to social groups in New York City's Bronx borough.
Venezuela Taps Lazard to Sell Citgo Petroleum
Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is working with investment bank Lazard Ltd to sell its North American unit, Citgo Petroleum Corp, according to people familiar with the situation. Venezuela's Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Aug. A potential sale would be Venezuela's biggest pullback ever from the U.S. refining market. Citgo has three U.S. refineries with combined capacity of some 750,000 barrels per day. They are in Lemont, Illinois; Lake Charles, Louisiana; and Corpus Christi, Texas. Citgo also has 48 terminals. Representatives for Citgo and Lazard declined to comment. The people asked not to be named because the matter is private.
Asia the New Top Destination for Venezuela Oil
Asia overtook North America last year as the main destination for Venezuelan exports of crude oil and processed fuels, according to preliminary data submitted to parliament by state oil company PDVSA. Asia received an average of 1.04 million barrels per day (bpd) from Venezuela in 2013, up a fifth compared with the previous year. Meanwhile, exports to the United States, Canada and Mexico fell 11 percent to 879,000 bpd. In its report to the National Assembly, PDVSA said it was increasing shipments to Asia, while maintaining those to South and Central America and the Caribbean, as part of a long-held strategy of market diversification.
