Venezuela Citgo | Condemns US-ordered ‘forced sale’ of oil companies | Oil and Gas News

A Delaware judge has ordered sales to settle debts as Venezuela says a US military buildup is targeting its oil reserves.

Venezuela’s Vice President and Petroleum Minister Delsey Rodriguez has condemned a US court’s decision to authorize the “fraudulent” and “coercive” sale of Venezuelan oil company Citgo to the United States to pay off billions of dollars in debt.

“We enthusiastically reject the decision taken in the judicial process”, Rodríguez said in a statement read on state television about the sale, which the Venezuelan government has always opposed.

Delaware Judge Leonard Stark last week ordered the sale of Citgo’s parent company Amber Energy, an affiliate of hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, for $5.9bn. Elliott Investment Management said in a press release that the court order was “supported by a strategic group of US energy investors”.

Citgo, a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela, SA), the state-owned oil company, is said to have more than $20bn in debt to creditors, reflecting the South American country’s wider economic woes, which once had a profitable oil industry targeted under US sanctions.

The company’s creditors include Canadian firm Crystallex, which the Venezuelan government said in 2019 owed $1.2 billion for the 2008 seizure and nationalization of Caracas. Las Cristinas minewhich is rich in gold, diamonds, iron and other minerals.

The sale of Citgo comes as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claims that the recent US military build-up in the Caribbean Sea around his country is aimed at seizing Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

So Venezuela has the world Largest proven oil reservesIt exported just $4.05bn worth of crude oil in 2023, estimated at 303 billion barrels by 2023, well below other major oil-producing countries, in part due to US sanctions imposed during US President Donald Trump’s first term.

Last week, Maduro Called fellow members To help his country oppose the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)Increasing and illegal threats“From the US and its president.

However, Paolo von Schirach, president of the Global Policy Institute, said he doubted Venezuela’s petition would gain much support “within OPEC itself.”

The Trump administration has claimed that its military operations in the region are focused on combating drug trafficking.

Venezuela was historically one of them Largest exporter of oil to the United States, but sales then declined sharply Hugo Chavez Elected as President in 1998.

Then, facing tougher sanctions under the first Trump administration, Venezuela shifted its exports to China, India and Cuba.

US multinational Chevron was granted a limited oil production license before the Trump administration re-tightened sanctions at the start of the Trump administration’s second term in March this year as trade tensions eased slightly under former US President Joe Biden.

PDVSA, the state-owned oil company that has dominated the exploitation of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, faces other challenges, including aging infrastructure, underinvestment and mismanagement, as well as the effects of international sanctions.