US Judge Approves Venezuela’s CITGO Auction Process
Guayaquil, Ecuador - A US judge greenlighted an auction procedure for Houston-based Venezuelan oil subsidiary CITGO.
According to documents published by Law360, on Wednesday Judge Leonard Stark of the US Delaware District Court authorized a special master to conduct a marketing and sales process for a “contingent auction” of CITGO shares “including selecting a winning bid.”
However, the ruling clarified that the company’s shares will not be transferred until the winning bidder obtains a license from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which currently blocks any attempt to sell or auction the US $8 billion-worth Venezuelan asset. CITGO was seized by Washington and placed under the control of US-backed self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaidó in 2019.