Citgo, which is owned by Venezuela’s state oil company, has to purchase 130,000 barrels a day from other refining companies to meet its service contracts at 13,100 stations across the US. The Houston-based company has decided to sell only the 750,000 barrels a day that it produces at three US refineries in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Corpus Christi, Texas, and Lemont, Illinois, according to a statement.
That will mean that over the next year, Citgo will withdraw completely from 10 states and stop supplying some stations in four additional states, Citgo spokesman Fernando Garay said yesterday.
Chavez has long claimed that parts of Citgo’s business produce losses for Venezuela and constitute a subsidy for the US economy.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has also charged that Citgo isn’t profitable enough and that its parent, state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, could at some point sell off some of the company’s refineries.
However, in a sign of the apparently lucrative relationship between the two companies, PDVSA announced that it has earned $400 million in dividends so far this year from Citgo. Garay said Citgo was not looking to sell any assets at present.
