Oilygarch Monopoly Games, OK to Iraq to Venezuela to South Pars

"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-11/threat-of-venezuelan-oil-ban-pits-oil-boss-hamm-against-refiners"

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-11/threat-of-venezuelan-oil-ban-pits-oil-boss-hamm-against-refiners

"Threat of Venezuelan Oil Ban Pits Oil Boss Hamm Against Refiners"

By Jennifer A Dlouhy , Bill Allison , and Meenal Vamburkar
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"Lewandowski leaves firm that lobbies for Venezuela-owned oil company with ties to Russia"

"Corey Lewandowski, President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, said Thursday he is leaving his newly-formed lobbying firm amid revelations it agreed to lobby for Citgo, the Venezuelan-owned oil company, CBS News has confirmed.

 A large chunk of Citgo could soon be owned by Russia's state-owned oil giant Rosneft, under the terms of a controversial deal that has led to calls for the White House to intervene.

Barry Bennett, Lewandowski's partner at Avenue Strategies, told CBS News that the lobbying firm was contracted to begin work for Citgo on April 1.

 News site Politico recently reported that Avenue Strategies, which was launched in December, has advertised its ability to arrange meetings with "key members" at the White House, including President Trump himself and Vice President Mike Pence. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lewandowskis-
firm-lobbies-for-venezuela-owned-company-that-has-deal-with-russia/


Citgo, which operates three pipelines and three refineries in the U.S., is owned by the Venezuela's state-run energy company PDVSA. 

The country and its company are subject to a variety of sanctions, and a bipartisan Senate bill introduced Wednesday calls for the U.S. to take a tougher stance against the Venezuelan government amid widespread protests in the country.


The Venezuelan company received a $1.5 billion loan on Nov. 30 from Rosneft, the Russian state-owned company run by Igor Sechin, long considered to be Vladimir Putin's right-hand man. Under the terms of the loan, if PDVSA defaults on its debts, Rosneft will claim 49.9 percent of Citgo. 
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"DALLAS — Champlin Refining & Chemicals Inc. will merge with Tulsa-based Citgo Petroleum Corp. under a restructuring plan designed to cut costs, a report said today.

The Irving, Tex.-based firms' parent, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said the refining operations of Venezuela's national oil company will continue under the Citgo name.

The combined companies have annual revenue of more than $7 million and refining capacity of 480,000 barrels of oil per day, the Dallas Morning News reported."

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-09-10/business/fi-383_1_citgo-s-headquarters

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"CITGO Becomes Wholly Owned by PDVSA

1990 Fox Television’s animated program “The Simpsons” made its television debut; “America’s Funniest Home Videos” was the most popular television show.

1990 CITGO became wholly owned by PDVSA.

1990 The former Champlin Refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, which was purchased by PDVSA from Union Pacific was integrated into the CITGO refining network.

1990 CITGO acquires the Seaview Asphalt Company, headquartered in Blue Bell, PA with a refinery in Paulsboro, NJ.

1990 CITGO honored with the prestigious Petroleum Marketers Association of America Supplier Cup.

1991 Soviet Union collapses.

1991 CITGO reports increase in income from operations while its competition reports losses.
1991 CITGO spends $283 million for construction of new refinery units and upgrades.
1991 CITGO invests more than $40 million in environmental protection projects.

1991 Six persons are killed in explosion and fire at CITGO’s Lake Charles Refinery “A” Catalytic Cracking Unit.

1991 Persian Gulf War.

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"Dramatic new details of France's secret dealings with Saddam Hussein's regime have emerged as part of a fresh corruption investigation into alleged illicit oil deals.


Three executives of France's largest oil corporation have been charged in Paris over claims that they funnelled millions of dollars through a Swiss company in order to bribe officials to gain oil deals in Iraq and Russia.

In the Nineties, French oil companies Total and Elf-Aquitaine won the rights to develop the $3.4 billion Bin Umar project and the vast Majnoon field in southern Iraq. 

Total, which acquired Elf, had been unable to exploit these fields while the UN trade embargo against Iraq was still in place.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/10/france.iraq

____________

"Petrofina was a Belgian oil company. It merged with Total in 1999 to form TotalFina, which after subsequent mergers has changed its name back to Total. In the United States, Fina's former refining and marketing operations are now owned by Texas-based Alon USA.[citation needed]

Petrofina was founded on the 25th of February 1920 by Hector Carlier his brother Fernand and Aloys Van de Vyvere as an Antwerp-based group called Compagnie Financière Belge des Pétroles, but changed to PetroFina to reflect their telegraphic address name.[citation needed]

Petrofina's Canadian retail operations in eastern Canada were sold to the Canadian government and became part of Petro-Canada.[1]

Petrofina merged with Total S.A. of France to form TotalFina and with Elf in 2000 to form TotalFinaElf. The company's current name is Total S.A. (since 2003)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrofina

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Closing the sale of about 170 gasoline stations owned and operated by Champlin Petroleum Co. in Oklahoma and several other states is expected to take place Thursday, says a spokesman for the buyer, American Petrofina Corp. 

Then comes the job of taking down all the Champlin signs and removing any other references to Champlin at those stations for conversion to Fina-brand stations by April 1, said Bill Cahill, spokesman for Dallas-based American Petrofina.

By the end of this month, Champlin signs also will have come down at about 600 other gas stations throughout the central United States owned and operated by independent gasoline retailers, said Champlin spokesman Ray Dryden.

These will mark the final steps in Champlin's plan, announced last October, to withdraw completely from retail marketing of gasoline and oil products.

Champlin stations, many associated with convenience stores, currently operate in an area extending from Texas to North Dakota and Minnesota.

But the greatest concentration of Champlin stations can probably be found right here in Oklahoma where the company has its roots, Dryden said.

All the Champlin-owned-and-operated stations involved in the sale to American Petrofina, including about 10 in the Oklahoma City metro area, are self-service units, he said.

Any full-service units are run by independent operators. Those units are not included in the sale to American Petrofina, the value of which was not disclosed.

About 119,000 Champlin credit card holders, of which about 81,000 are considered active, should have received notices in the mail by now informing them that Champlin credit cards will not be honored after March 31.

https://newsok.com/article/2060789/sale-of-champlins-170-stations-looms
https://newsok.com/article/2060789/sale-of-champlins-170-stations-looms

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"Another expansion of FINA's marketing operations came in 1984, when American Petrofina purchased several thousand service stations from Oklahoma-based Champlin Refining Company following that firm's closing of its Enid, Oklahoma refinery.

The Champlin assets were rebranded as FINA stations in several Mid-Continent states including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa among others."

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"
A lobbying firm founded by former Trump aides has roped in some huge clients like Citgo and Altria, but it has some limits, too
Michael Cohen wasn't the only one with ties to President Donald Trump trying to rope in billion-dollar companies.

Former campaign advisors at Avenue Strategies were doing the same — with broader reach and apparently much more success.

Tobacco giant Altria hired the firm to help with a strategy to figure out how to craft compelling messages to fight back against regulators, sources told CNBC."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/14/firm-founded-by-trump-aides-scored-deals-with-altria-citgo.html