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Saudi Aramco bidding on Venezuela's Citgo
Venezuela is shopping around Citgo, its Houston-based refining arm. And there has been some interest."We have various interested parties in the issue of Citgo," Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said at a Caracas news conference. "We are in conversations with several companies." Ramirez wouldn't divulge names, but Saudi Aramco is in the market to build and buy refineries that can convert crude to valuable products like gasoline and diesel.

In an interview on Wednesday, Saudi Aramco chief Abdallah Jum'ah would not say whether his company is bidding on Citgo assets along the Gulf Coast, but he confirmed he wants to increase refining capacity in the United States. "I'm not going to comment on who we are talking to, but we are talking to many people in many countries," he said. "We want to be here. The U.S. is a big lifter of our crude, and it's a market we do want to be in forever." Ramirez said at this point that Petróleos de Venezuela, otherwise known as PDVSA, is not negotiating a sale to Saudi Aramco. Russia's Lukoil has also expressed an interest in Citgo's refineries. Citgo is owned by PDVSA, but only half the crude processed in six U.S. refineries comes from Venezuela. Another $18 billion in outside oil was purchased last year.
Posted by: TMH 2005-02-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=56807