Conoco aiming to seize oil cargoes near Citgo’s Aruba terminal
USA - U.S. oil company ConocoPhillips has brought new court actions to seize two cargoes of crude and fuel near a terminal operated by PDVSA subsidiary Citgo Petroleum in Aruba, the Aruban government confirmed on Tuesday. Conoco is moving aggressively to enforce a $2 billion arbitration award over the 2007 expropriation of two oil projects in Venezuela, creating unease in the Caribbean, where many islands depend on fuel produced by state-run PDVSA. “The Aruba refinery has said that an embargo on two Citgo oil cargoes was introduced last night. Citgo is claiming the crude as its own, and is fighting at court to demonstrate the product is not PDVSA’s,” said Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes in a statement. “Independent of any outcome, this is not going to affect Aruba,” she said. Citgo, the U.S. refining unit of PDVSA, has leased the 209,000 barrel-per-day Aruba refinery and its 13 millionbarrel terminal from the government since 2016 to store Venezuelan and other crudes for supplying its U.S. refineries. As the refinery remains idled since 2012 while a major refurbish project is underway, Citgo regularly supplies the island with imported fuel. There were a half dozen tankers around Aruba on Tuesday. Two, the Atlantic Lily and the Grimstad, were loaded with oil and fuel, according to Thomson Reuters vessel tracking data. WeverCroes told journalists that government officials and the management of the refinery are organizing a contingency plan to avoid a situation similar to Curacao and Bonaire, where inventories were blocked by Conoco’s legal actions. No fuel shortages have happened in the Caribbean but officials are trying to import from other sources. Conoco in recent days seized the 10 million-barrel BOPEC oil terminal owned by PDVSA in Bonaire and fuel inventories at the 335,000 barrel-per-day Isla refinery operated by the Venezuelan firm in Curacao. Both islands are in talks with Conoco to free fuel to domestic consumption. “What belongs to Citgo belongs to PDVSA, but a judge has to rule on it,” Wever-Croes said. She did not disclose the name of the tankers. PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, Curacao officials said the Isla refinery would have to halt refining operations once its available inventories were exhausted. “It is PDVSA that has failed to honor our award by ignoring the judgment of the ICC tribunal and other local court orders,” Beaudo said in a statement. Conoco Chief Executive Ryan Lance on Tuesday said the firm is far from recovering all of the $2 billion ICC award. He said legal actions have been brought in Hong Kong and London to have the ruling recognized following a similar move last month in a New York court.
(Reuters)