U.S. MOVES TO BLOCK FOREIGN GRABS ON VENEZUELA’S OIL MONEY
The Trump admin just stepped in to freeze a courtroom feeding frenzy, where foreign creditors were circling Venezuela’s crown jewel: oil giant Citgo.
Over $20B in claims were on the table from ConocoPhillips to Siemens, hoping to get paid through Citgo’s forced sale.
The claims, from foreign companies and creditors, were based on trying to seize shares in Citgo, Venezuela’s U.S.-based oil refiner, as repayment for unpaid debts, expropriations, and defaulted bonds.
In total, over 20 companies have lined up to grab a piece of Citgo in a court-ordered share auction, overseen by a U.S. judge in Delaware.
But now, the U.S. government is stepping in, saying no one can touch those assets unless they approve it because Citgo technically belongs to the opposition “interim government” the U.S. still recognizes, not Maduro.
That intervention could delay or derail payouts for years, throwing a wrench into what many companies saw as their long-awaited payday.
Essentially, the U.S. just upended years of legal warfare and corporate scheming by reminding everyone who’s really in charge of Venezuela’s assets.
Citgo is one of the last big Venezuelan assets abroad, control over it could influence Venezuela’s economic recovery, debt repayments, and foreign relations (or pay off its past).
Source: Bloomberg