Back in '08 a Canadian mining company, Crystallex, owned by a hedge fund had a gold mine in Venezuela nationalized. They sued for $1.4 billion against the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA (know as CITGO in the US) with several refineries and 4000 retail outlets in the US.
After years of legal wrangling, in 2018 a judge ruled against Venezuela and said they had to pay $1.4 billion or give up their CITGO assets. Venezuela said it wasn’t giving up any cash.
Amber Energy plans to hold on to Citgo refineries after takeover https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/amber-energy-plans-hold-citgo-refineries-after-takeover-2025-12-01/ Elliott Investment Management’s affiliate Amber Energy plans to keep Citgo Petroleum’s refineries, terminals and other connected assets once it takes over the Venezuela-owned U.S. refiner, following the completion of a court-ordered auction, sources close to the preparations said.
A Delaware court last week approved Amber’s $5.9 billion bid for Citgo’s parent PDV Holding and ordered the sale of PDV’s shares, wrapping up an auction aimed at compensating creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in Venezuela.
“All that oil” refers to a very large but also very very thick heavy (in the technical meanings of the industry) and not quickly cheaply recoverable deposit.
Years ago I did a project at the Citgo Refinery in Corpus Christi. The mounds of sulfur that had been removed from the oil to make it saleable were higher than the cat crackers (i.e., large distillation towers.)
Maybe. The oil is sanctioned. What will the US do with it? The Citco refinaries have been revamped to process light sweet crude…not that it matters. Other refinaries may be able to process it…I want to know!
It’s no secret that the crypto industry has invested a lot of money in the current US administration. Are we gonna start cracking down on the Axis of Evasion who uses crypto to skirt sanctions?
The oil market is grappling with whether sanctioned Russian and Iranian cargoes should still be counted as supply. This may explain why oil prices have been slow to react to a huge glut that is building on the ocean.
There are 1.4 billion barrels of oil “on the water.” That is 24% higher than the average for this time of year between 2016 and 2024, according to oil-analytics firm Vortexa. The data measures shipments that are on their way to be unloaded at a port, or cargoes that haven’t yet found a buyer.
The rise of oil on water comes from multiple sources. There has been a 16% year-over-year jump in barrels from mainstream producers, Vortexa data shows. OPEC+ has been pumping more oil as it unwinds production cuts, and supply is also increasing