White House and State Department officials have told U.S. oil executives in recent weeks that they would need to return to Venezuela quickly and invest significant capital in the country to revive the damaged oil industry if they wanted compensation for assets expropriated by Venezuela two decades ago, Reuters reported. In the 2000s, Venezuela expropriated the assets of some international oil companies that declined to give state-run oil company PDVSA increased operational control, as demanded by late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. U.S.

Venezuela started shutting wells in a region that holds the world’s largest deposits of oil in the face of a blockade by the Trump administration meant to financially squeeze the nation, Bloomberg News reported. Petroleos de Venezuela SA began shuttering wells in the Orinoco Belt on Dec. 28 as the state-run refiner ran out of storage space and inventory swelled. PDVSA aims to reduce Orinoco Belt production by at least 25% to 500,000 barrels a day, the people said. The decrease represents a 15% cut of Venezuela’s overall output of 1.1 million barrels a day.

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, Reuters reported. 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.

A U.S. judge on Saturday authorized the sale of shares in the Venezuela-owned parent of Citgo Petroleum to an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management, following his approval earlier this week of a $5.9 billion bid from the company in a court-organized auction to pay Venezuela-linked creditors, Reuters reported. The sale order is the last major legal step to wrap a two-year auction aimed at paying up to 15 creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in the South American country.

A federal judge endorsed Elliott Investment Management’s roughly $6 billion bid for Venezuela’s shares of Citgo Petroleum, pushing the forced sale of the country’s prized foreign asset closer to completion, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark approved a court-appointed special master’s selection of Elliott as the winning bid, saying that although it didn’t have the highest sticker price, it was the best all-around bid and the one most certain to close.

An affiliate of Elliott Investment Management wants to cut costs at Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum while a unit of Gold Reserve would largely focus on maintaining the status quo, five sources told Reuters, as a lengthy auction that will determine the refiner's future nears an end. Details of the two competing visions for Citgo emerged ahead of a U.S. court selecting the winner for an auction of shares in Citgo's parent company, PDV Holding.

A U.S. judge upheld the validity of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA's 2020 bonds on Thursday, in a blow to the company, which had argued that the defaulted bonds were not properly issued, Reuters reported. The bonds are secured by a majority stake in U.S. refiner Citgo , which is owned by PDVSA. The company defaulted on the bonds in 2019, putting the refiner at risk of seizure by creditors. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla in Manhattan ruled that the bonds were indeed properly issued under Venezuelan law.

A long-awaited sale hearing expected to complete a U.S. court-organized auction of shares in the parent of Venezuela-owned U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum is set to begin on Monday, with bidders and creditors locked in a bitter dispute over who should win, Reuters reported. The Delaware court will hear testimony from the involved parties, witnesses and experts in the four-day showdown before Judge Leonard Stark selects a final winner. Another set of arguments could be presented in October if the court decides more time and evidence are needed. At stake is the future of the seventh largest U.S.

Venezuela's government is slowly allowing the use of dollar-tied cryptocurrencies in currency exchanges for the private sector, a dozen sources said, as U.S. restrictions on oil exports reduce available foreign currency, Reuters reported. Sanctions by the United States, which the Venezuelan government has characterized as "economic war," prevent many business transactions, forcing companies seeking to buy raw materials from abroad to exchange local bolivars for dollars that are generated by the oil trade and foreign card transactions and are injected into exchanges by the central bank.

A U.S. judge on Monday authorized a court officer overseeing an auction of shares in the parent of Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum to receive and negotiate improved bids this week before confirming or changing the winner recommendation he made last month, Reuters reported. A final winner recommendation in the complex court-organized auction is expected to be submitted by the end of this month, Judge Leonard Stark said in a hearing. Read more.