Houston-based Citgo Petroleum is the crown jewel of Venezuela’s international oil assets and it’s in the process of being sold to a refining startup backed by activist investor Paul Singer’s Elliott Investment Management, following a decade-long legal battle.
At the end of November, Elliott-backed Amber Energy won an oft-delayed and hotly contested court-ordered auction for Citgo at a discounted price of $5.9 billion. The company also has to pay more than $2 billion for holders of defaulted Venezuelan bonds. Legal appeals from Venezuela and other bidders remain pending, but the deal is still expected to close by the end of this year, according to energy analysts.
The auction victory for Elliott and Amber came just prior to the Trump administration deposing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. That move potentially positions Citgo and other U.S. refiners to receive more barrels of the heavy-grade Venezuelan crude oil desired by many Gulf Coast refineries.
Citgo has three U.S. refineries, plus pipeline and terminal assets. Its network refines 800,000 barrels a day at sites in Louisiana, Texas, and Illinois. It has branding and fuel marketing deals with 4,000 independently owned retail outlets throughout the East Coast, Midwest, and South.
