Xmas for Vlad, CITGO

" As allies go, Venezuela is a relatively cheap one for Russia. But the potential returns on Moscow’s investment there could be priceless.

In exchange for modest loans and bailouts over the past decade, Russia now owns significant parts of at least five oil fields in Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest reserves, along with 30 years’ worth of future output from two Caribbean natural-gas fields. 

Venezuela also has signed over 49.9 percent of Citgo, its wholly owned company in the United States — including three Gulf Coast refineries and a countrywide web of pipelines — as collateral to Russia’s state-owned Rosneft oil behemoth for a reported $1.5 billion in desperately needed cash. "
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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.

https://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO/CITGOHeritage/CITGOHeritage1990s.jsp

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"
The Venezuelan national oil company will merge two Oklahoma-born companies "to achieve a stronger position" in the United States refining and marketing industry, company officials disclosed Thursday.

Champlin Refining and Chemicals Inc., based in Irving, Texas, will be combined with Tulsa-based Citgo Petroleum Corp., Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) spokesman Kent Young said at a Tulsa news conference. The joint headquarters will remain in Tulsa."

https://newsok.com/article/2330274/champlin-refining-citgo-plan-merger

"With the integration, the merged companies will have revenues in excess of $7 billion and a refining capacity of 480,000 barrels per day. 

Citgo's refinery in Lake Charles, La., has a capacity of 320,000 barrels per day and Champlin's Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery has a capacity of 160,000 barrels per day.

Citgo has 3,200 employees, 900 of them in Tulsa; 1,600 at the Lake Charles refinery and 150 at a packaging and blending plant in Cicero, Ill. The rest are scattered at terminals.

 Champlin has 150 employees in Irving. Hall said Thursday he doesn't know Champlin's total personnel, but estimated the number to be between 700 and 900.

The merger is part of an international restructuring intended to "extend PDVSA's global reach," Hall explained.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/VedLkQ1yNvestYNNSakalMsZB1s=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/5SJG7GACCMI6TFMMBJQBEJX7NM.jpg


When Russ Dallen, a Florida-based managing partner at the brokerage Caracas Capital Markets, sifted through court filings in Delaware, where Citgo’s holding company is based, he found that Rosneft had reached a deal that had pumped $1.5 billion into Venezuela in exchange for a lien on the other 49.9 percent of Citgo.

With assumptions that Citgo, if sold, could be worth between $6 billion and $9 billion, the arrangement amounted to a sweetheart deal — and, in addition, the Russians had managed to lay claim to almost half of a major U.S. oil giant.

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"it hired Avenue Strategies, the firm co-founded by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and campaign adviser Barry Bennett.

Since then, Citgo has paid Avenue Strategies $160,000 to lobby the White House, the Treasury Department, the Justice Department, and the Energy Department on the “potential impact of U.S. energy and foreign policy restrictions on CITGO Petroleum Corporation's operations and valuation of assets,” according to disclosure filings.

Two Avenue Strategies lobbyists were specifically tasked to press for Citgo sanctions relief: Bennett and Bud Cummins, a former U.S. Attorney and the Arkansas state chairman for the Trump campaign. Avenue Strategies did not respond to requests for comment on its work for Citgo.

Citgo sought favor with the Trump administration even before the president took office. It pitched in $500,000 to fund the president’s inaugural ceremony, according to Federal Election Commission records— a break from previous inaugurations, which the company had not bothered to finance.