The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC) extended the general license until July 20,
according to the department's website.
A spokesperson for Citgo was not immediately available to comment.
Citgo 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 Nicolas
Maduro. Washington has since 2019 recognized the opposition-led
congress as the entity controlling the refining subsidiary,
extending protection to prevent its breakup at the hands of
Venezuela creditors.
The three-month extension comes as a U.S. district court judge is seeking federal approval to schedule an auction that could lead to a breakup of the seventh-largest U.S. refiner by volume.
A U.S. court this month asked OFAC for guidance on its
aim to auction shares in Citgo's parent to cover a $970 million
judgment obtained by Crystallex International over the
expropriation of its mining assets in Venezuela. Any OFAC reply
would be relayed to the judge at month's end.
O-I Glass Inc , Huntington Ingalls Industries , ACL1 Investments, Rusoro Mining Ltd and Gold Reserve separately have won attachments contingent on obtaining U.S. Treasury approval to seize assets, or an end to the Treasury protection. Their judgments total $2.6 billion.
ConocoPhillips separately has a claim against
Venezuela valued at $1.29 billion over the nationalization of
its oil assets in the country.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston, Caitlin Webber in
Washington; Editing by Paul Grant and Marguerita Choy)
