Citgo Petroleum, the United States-based refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products which is a unit of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company, said on Thursday 28th March, 2019 that it raised $1.2 billion through a five-year term loan to cover operating expenses and to refinance existing debt.
According to Citgo the $1.2 billion loan will enable them settled a $320 million accounts receivable securitization facility and a $900 million revolving credit line. The financing would help Citgo fund its operations following U.S. sanctions and its subsequent split from the parent company, which remains under control of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and a military-led management team.
Citgo had reportedly divorced itself from its parent company PDVSA after the United States’ government imposed sanctions and barred all U.S. firms, including Citgo, from importing Venezuelan crude as part of a strategy to starve the Maduro government of oil revenue as a result of the political crisis in Venezuela and to force the ousting of Nicolás Maduro through economic sanctions.
In order to force the ousting of Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. has rolled out several economic sanctions on any institution which remains under control of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and a military-led management team since the Venezuelan congress head Juan Guaido invoked the constitution to assume interim presidency in January, 2019 after declaring Maduro’s May 2018 re-election illegitimate and a subsequent fierce battle for control of Citgo, Venezuela’s largest foreign asset, which has been valued at $8 billion to $13 billion.