Post #1297

Delaware District Judge Leonard P. Stark has determined that a court-ordered sale of CITGO shares will begin on October 23. Venezuela’s US-based oil subsidiary faces the possibility of being broken up to satisfy claims related to international arbitration awards in favor of multinational corporations. The court-mandated auction of CITGO shares was set in motion in October 2022 following a long-drawn legal battle initiated by Canadian miner Crystallex to collect an outstanding US $1 billion out of a $1.4 billion award granted by the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in 2016 as compensation for the 2008 nationalization of a gold mine in Venezuela. The sale will likewise settle $1.3 billion owed of a $2 billion award granted by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to oil firm ConocoPhillips. In early July, the refiner suffered another setback when the Third Circuit appeals court ruled that state oil company PDVSA is Venezuela’s “alter ego” and thus, along with its subsidiaries, liable for the country’s debts. The decision will allow six other corporations owed a combined $4 billion from ICSID awards to tag their claims to the Delaware share auction proceedings. https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15812