Vitol Group, the world's largest independent oil trader, has submitted an application to acquire PDV Holdings Inc., the parent company of Citgo Petroleum Corp., which is a key foreign asset Venezuela. This is reported in the Vitol press release.
The U.S. Federal Court in Delaware is holding an auction for the sale of PDV Holding, a subsidiary of the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), as part of the settlement of lawsuits against Venezuela and PDVSA for more than $20 billion, including arbitration awards, unpaid debts and defaulted bonds.
The auction is aimed at paying off debts to creditors. Applications were accepted last week, and a hearing on the sale is scheduled for July 15.
Vitol has joined the list of applicants, including Canadian mining company Gold Reserve Inc., who are counting on $7 billion in financing from JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The Venezuelan opposition opposes the deal because the sale of assets could help President Nicolas Maduro get re-elected for a second term in July. PDVSA's special board of directors, appointed by the opposition, considered filing for bankruptcy to delay the sale.
Vitol is a Swiss-Dutch company and the world's largest oil trader with headquarters in Rotterdam (Netherlands). Over the past two years, the company has invested in South Africa's Engen Ltd, Italy's Massimo Moratti's Saras SpA and BP Plc's gas station network in Turkey.
Citgo is an oil refining company for the transportation and marketing of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemical products and other industrial products. It is headquartered in Houston, Texas, with refineries in Louisiana, Illinois and Texas, as well as stakes in terminals, pipelines and lubricants plants. The controlling stake belongs to the state-owned company PDVSA.
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