HOUSTON (Reuters) – Russian oil firm Rosneft turned over a certificate representing its 49.9% stake in a parent of U.S. oil refiner Citgo Petroleum, a U.S. court was told on Monday.
PDV Holding, another Citgo parent, told a U.S. District Court in Delaware it had recovered the certificate from a unit of Rosneft on Wednesday. The court is considering setting an auction process that would sell Citgo assets to repay claims against Venezuela.
“This event brings to a close years of effort to recover the certificate of the shares, which had been pledged in violation of Venezuelan law by PDV Holding and PDVSA officials appointed during the Nicolas Maduro regime,” PDV Holding said in a statement.
The court has received claims totally exceeding $20 billion from about 10 companies including miner Crystallex U.S. and oil firm ConocoPhillips. The U.S. Treasury has said it would have to issue a license approving any transfer of assets under the proposed court auction.
Citgo and parents PDV Holding and Citgo Holding split from Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA in 2019 under an order by Venezuela’s National Assembly after the U.S. imposed sanctions intended to oust President Maduro.
Rosneft received the shares in 2016 as collateral for a loan it provided to the Venezuelan government.
Citgo declined to comment on the court proceedings.
(Reporting by Gary McWilliams; editing by Grant McCool)
