Venezuelan opposition takes over Citgo US refinery operations

Fuel Fix:
Citgo Petroleum confirmed Friday that a board of directors named by the Venezuelan opposition has taken control of the Houston refiner, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company and key prize in the power struggle with government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Citgo said the new board met in Houston this week to review the company's operations and plan for the shift in power. Earlier this week, four executives tied to CEO Asdrubal Chavez, a Maduro loyalist and cousin to Maduro's mentor, the late Hugo Chavez, were dismissed and escorted from the Citgo headquarters, employees said.

The new board will be led by the board's first chairwoman, Luisa Palacios. It includes Rick Esser, an executive vice president, Edgar Rincón, Angel Olmeta, Luis Urdaneta and Andres Eloy Padilla. Citgo said in a statement that Esser will run day-to-day operation while the company seeks a new chief executive.

The company said in a statement Friday the board is conducting "an intensive review of the company's business units" as well as "an in-depth discussion of the company's finances, operations and immediate challenges so the board can quickly develop and implement its vision going forward."

The new board was named earlier this month by Juan Guaidó, the leader of the National Assembly who declared himself acting president. Guaido is recognized by the United States and its allies as the legitimate leader.
...
The takeover by the new board means the company is breaking away from the Maduro regime. Chávez was named the president and CEO of Citgo in 2017 following the arrest in Venezuela of six Citgo executives, who are still being held in a Venezuelan detention center. The Trump administration revoked Chávez's visa last year and he is no longer running day-to-day operations.
...
As a result of US sanctions, the company had already stopped using Venezuelan oil.  Maduro will have to be toppled to secure the release of Citgo people he arrested.  Citgo has been a key asset of Venezuela.  Some of its facilities are subject to a lien by Russia which made an ill-advised loan to the Madero regime.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t...
Read more

Is the F-35 obsolete?

Headline USA: Pentagon Fires Back after Musk Calls Its Most Expensive Project ‘Obsolete’ 'Yeah, as I'm sure you can appreciate, Mr. Musk is, currently, a private citizen, I'm not going to make any comments about what a private citizen may have to say about the F-35....'   ... ... Drones appear to be replacing jets for many operations.  The Russia-Ukraine war is an example of that.  Drones are often hard to detect and can be used for intelligence operations as well as for attacking enemy targets.  It would not surprise me to see drones engaging other drones in combat.  They also cost much less than manned fighters.  
Read more