[LAHT] Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA admitted that it had mortgaged a 49.9% stake in the biggest three refineries it still owns outside Venezuela to Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, after an article by the Latin American Herald Tribune exposed the transaction Thursday.A 49.9% stake in the three refineries and the extensive U.S. pipelines owned by Citgo was "used to raise new financing", PDVSA said in a defensive statement.
| Hugo's daughter needed some new baubles, you see... |
"Citgo is still owned by PDVSA", PDVSA's statement begins by saying, but later in the text PDVSA also admits that "in October it used as guarantee a 50.1% of Citgo in a bond swap operation." If PDVSA defaults,
| ...which it will... |
In short, the assets accumulated by previous Venezuela governments over 40 years were liquidated by "chavismo" in less than 10 years and with the proceeds disposed of in a manner not at all transparent.
| Communism doesn't work. All else is mere detail. Socialism doesn't work a bit more slowly, but follows the same broad, pot-holed road to ruin. |
Since 2005 onwards, PDVSA has also sold assets abroad other than refineries, such as pipeline companies, ports, terminals and storage capacity.
PDVSA's statement says the latest deal was carried out in the midst of "attacks from the press, but also during an adverse period for the world oil industry."
"PDVSA denies the media reports and comments based on speculation, rumors and biased information that discredit the Corporation made by spokespersons interested in generating political destabilization in our country," PDVSA said in its statement.
At the same time as it was confirming the secret deal, the monolithic ruling Chavista regime political party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), went on the attack against LAHT, Russ Dallen and Redd Intelligence in an article called "Five Points that deny the sale of shares of Citgo."
"Beyond the recurring manipulation of anti-Chavez economists, journalists and politicians around PDVSA's financial operations, the decision -- ratified in an official communiqué -- to place shares of its subsidiary in the United States as a guarantee to improve its financial position is far from what other oil corporations are doing," the statement defensively begins, not mentioning that it only issued its "official communique" after LAHT's article dominated headlines.
| Utterly adorable in their transparency. |