{"id":332374,"date":"2026-01-30T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/?p=332374"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:53:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:53:38","slug":"citgo-buys-venezuelan-oil-again-at-key-moment","status":"publish","type":"noticias","link":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/news\/citgo-buys-venezuelan-oil-again-at-key-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Citgo buys Venezuelan oil again at key moment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

US refiner Citgo Petroleum has closed a deal to import approximately 500,000 barrels<\/strong> of Venezuelan heavy crude through international trader Trafigura<\/strong>, for delivery in February 2026. This is the first purchase of Venezuelan oil by Citgo since 2019<\/strong>, the year it officially cut its operational ties with its parent, Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA, due to U.S. sanctions. <\/p>\n\n

Citgo’<\/strong>s refineries<\/strong>, with a combined capacity of 830,000 barrels per day, are considered among the best technically adapted networks in the United States to process Venezuela’s distinctive heavy crude oil.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

A context of commercial normalization and change of ownership<\/h2>\n\n

This move comes at a time of reactivation of reactivation of the commercial flow of Venezuelan oil to the international market, with other U.S. refineries such as Valero and Phillips 66 also making recent purchases.<\/a><\/strong> to the international market, where other U.S. refineries such as Valero and Phillips 66<\/strong> have also made recent purchases<\/a><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

On the other hand, the purchase occurs under the shadow of an imminent and extremely complex change of ownership. Citgo is immersed in a court-ordered auction to pay Venezuela’s creditors<\/strong>, whose total claim exceeds US$19 billion<\/a>. In November 2025, an affiliate of hedge fund Elliott Investment Management (Amber Energy) emerged as the winning bidder with a bid of approximately US$5.9 billion for Citgo’s parent company. <\/a><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

However, it is important to note that this change of control has not been officially consummated<\/strong>. As of January 2026, Citgo continues to operate normally in the United States while the necessary regulatory approvals are completed and pending legal appeals are resolved<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

A key move for operational efficiency<\/h2>\n\n

In recent years, the company has reported financial results that reflect the challenges of operating with non-optimal feedstocks, although it showed a net income of US$167 million in the third quarter of 2025<\/strong>. The reacquisition of this specific crude could consolidate and improve these margins<\/strong>, optimizing the performance of its refineries in Texas, Louisiana and Illinois. <\/p>\n\n

Source: Reuters<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A purchase that breaks a trade veto that had lasted since 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10019,"featured_media":332365,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categoria_noticias":[13026,13036],"etiqueta_noticias":[],"class_list":["post-332374","noticias","type-noticias","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categoria_noticias-energy","categoria_noticias-oil-and-gas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/332374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/noticias"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/332374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categoria_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categoria_noticias?post=332374"},{"taxonomy":"etiqueta_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/etiqueta_noticias?post=332374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}