To understand how what’s happening right now came about, one has to realize this story starts years ago, in a galaxy far, far away – Venezuela.
In around 2008 or so, a Canadian mining company, Crystallex, owned by a hedge fund, had one of their gold mines in Venezuela stolen by the government – nationalized is the term – and they didn’t much care for the idea.
They weren’t going to take the loss of the Las Cristinas mine lying down and decided to sue. But about the only assets the Venezuelan government had which were anywhere they could lay claim to for the $1.4B in damages they wanted were the state-owned assets of the Venezuelan oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A (PDVSA – they pronounce it ‘pedavesa’) in the United States. We know them as CITGO.
So that’s what they did. The Canadians filed a lawsuit in Delaware, and eventually, the judge ruled they had legal standing to sue for the theft of their gold mine. After nearly ten years of wrangling, by 2018, the judge had also ruled for the claimants, and given Venezuela the option to cough up the $1.4B to satisfy the judgment or have their entire US CITGO operations – three refineries and forty-eight terminals – seized and sold at auction to pay for the goldmine.
Venezuela wasn’t writing any checks.
By 2021, there had been some movement, and the belief was that Crystallex was in the home stretch of receiving compensation, as the Delaware judge finally approved the sale of CITGO. Only US sanctions against Maduro were gumming up the punitive auction. A potential CITGO auction was going to have to first gain the approval of the US government.
Crystallex closer to being paid off by Venezuela
Delaware District Judge Leonard Stark -almost- made Canadian miner Crystallex’s wishes come through.
Stark complied with a request the company made back in September 2020 and approved the sale of PDV Holdings shares just before mid-January 2021. PDV Holdings is the parent company of refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp., which is owned by Venezuela.
With this action, Crystallex wants to enforce a $1.4-billion arbitral award against the South American country, following a decade-long dispute over Venezuela’s 2008 nationalization of its gold mine in the southeastern Bolívar state. The amount is comprised of $1.2 billion, plus $200 million of interest awarded by a World Bank arbitration tribunal in 2016.
Four years later, and one week ago, Judge Stark approved a winning auction bid for all of CITGO’s assets, ostensibly wresting Maduro’s most valuable commodity from his hands.
It had to be bleak in Caracas.
An affiliate of Elliott Investment Management won a court-ordered auction for control of the parent company of US oil refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp., Venezuela’s most-valuable foreign asset.
US District Judge Leonard Stark in Wilmington, Delaware, said Tuesday he would adopt a special master’s recommendation that Amber Energy’s $5.89 billion bid was the highest and best generated by the lengthy auction process for shares held by Citgo’s US parent, moving the case closer to conclusion after eight years of litigation.
“The Amber bid offers the best overall combination of price and certainty of closing of any bid submitted,” Stark said in his 162-page decision. “The Amber bid is neither grossly inadequate nor manifestly unjust and therefore should be” approved, he wrote. The refiner is a subsidiary of PDV Holding, owned by Venezuela’s oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela SA.
In today’s news, Amber Energy, the petroleum industry subsidiary of Elliot Investment Management, which will actually take possession of CITGO, said it won’t be selling any part of the company. They are going to keep all of the refineries, gas stations, etc, intact and move CITGO forward as an American company.
Elliott Investment Management’s affiliate Amber Energy plans to keep Citgo Petroleum’s refineries, terminals and other connected assets once it takes over the Venezuela-owned U.S. refiner, following the completion of a court-ordered auction, sources close to the preparations said.
A Delaware court last week approved Amber’s $5.9 billion bid for Citgo’s parent PDV Holding and ordered the sale of PDV’s shares, wrapping up an auction aimed at compensating creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in Venezuela.The competition heated up in the final stages, with Amber and rival Gold Reserve (GRZ.V), opens new tab raising their offers, while new bidders emerged with last-minute proposals.The sale needs approval from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Citgo and its Venezuelan-owned parent companies are appealing the auction results and the sale order, which means there is still a level of uncertainty to the takeover.
Considered the crown jewel of Venezuela’s foreign assets, Citgo’s 829,000 barrel-per-day refining network is a sophisticated operation supported by 43 terminals and 4,000 independently owned retail outlets across the U.S. The Houston-based company, which is the seventh largest U.S. refiner, employs some 3,300 workers.
It sounds as if Amber is in it for the long haul.
…”They are assuming they are going to be owning this thing for a very long time and just operating it well, running it efficiently, and getting returns through cash-flow-generating business,” one of the sources familiar with Amber’s plans said.
The company has already changed its corporate webpage to reflect its commitment to CITGO as an American oil company.
Proven performance to power our world.
Amber Energy is focused on strengthening CITGO’s world-class assets to deliver essential products that power communities and advance America’s energy advantage. We have a track record of improving financial and operational performance, as well as accelerating growth, at companies across the energy industry. Backed by a group of strategic U.S. energy investors, Amber Energy is committed to fueling American growth, innovation, and competitiveness in the energy sector.
Exclusive: Amber Energy plans to hold on to Citgo refineries after takeover https://t.co/Dwhnd3O7z0 pic.twitter.com/FxQNUKv663
— Reuters Energy and Commodities (@ReutersCommods) December 1, 2025
ADVANCE AMERICA’S ENERGY ADVANTAGE
They are certainly singing this administration’s tune, no? I don’t think there will be too much trouble getting the ‘okey dokey’ for the rest of the business to be completed as far as the sale goes.
Meanwhile, south of the border, the hysterics knob has been turned to ten.
This is supposedly their vice president.
She has a big mad.
🔴 AHORA | Vicepresidenta Ejecutiva de Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez:
▪ “El día de ayer un tribunal estadounidense decidió definitivamente robar CITGO, en ‘conchupancia’ con factores internos del extremismo y fascismo de Venezuela, quienes montaron una trama fraudulenta en 2019” pic.twitter.com/VstpUWIwKl
— NoticiasAlDiaFN (@NoticiasAlDiaFN) December 2, 2025
NOW | Executive Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez:
“Yesterday, a U.S. court definitively decided to steal CITGO, in ‘cahoots’ with internal elements of the extremism and fascism of Venezuela, who orchestrated a fraudulent scheme in 2019″
State media is in a tizzy, too.
#ÚLTIMAHORA | l El Gobierno de Venezuela rechaza la “venta forzosa” en EE.UU. de la petrolera Citgo, filial de la estatal Pdvsa, y califica la operación como un “vulgar y bárbaro despojo”. pic.twitter.com/QJaEfHs9qz
— EFE Noticias (@EFEnoticias) December 2, 2025
#BREAKING | The Government of Venezuela rejects the “forced sale” in the US of the oil company Citgo, a subsidiary of the state-owned Pdvsa, and describes the operation as a “vulgar and barbaric dispossession”.
Kind of ironic how stealing property becomes ‘vulgar and barbaric dispossession’ when it’s Maduro’s goodies being lifted in retaliation for previous thefts.
In any event, Amber and the court anticipate the deal will be fully closed by early next year, the uncertainty will evaporate, and executives are looking forward to moving ahead with a completely American CITGO.
…For Amber, there has been an “erosion of asset value” during the long-standing sale process, along with deteriorated operations and the loss of talented employees. Citgo was valued by court advisors at about $13 billion, but Venezuela, which opposes the auction, has said it is worth up to $18 billion.
“Citgo has terrific people and high-quality assets,” the source said. “Just getting it out of limbo should allow the enterprise to thrive.“
Energy independence is a key piece of Trump’s agenda, and this golden nugget here, the seventh-largest oil company in the country, coming into the national fold, will only serve to make that dream fully attainable.
Sometimes good things take a while to develop, and you never even hear about them.
This is one of those times.
At HotAir, we’ve been dealing with real government suppression of free speech for YEARS. Despite the threats and consequences, we refuse to go silent and remain committed to delivering the truth.
But we can’t do it without your support.
Please help Ed, David, John, and me continue fighting back against government censorship by joining our terrific HotAir VIP community today. Use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
And thank you so much again for being here with us at HotAir.
