Venezuela has condemned what it described as the US-ordered "forced sale" of its most valuable overseas asset, the Houston-based refiner Citgo, after a Delaware court authorised the transaction to satisfy creditors seeking repayment of long-standing debts.
Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez said Caracas "strongly rejects" the ruling, which approved the sale of Citgo’s parent, PDV Holding, as part of a court-supervised process.
Reading a statement on state television, she called the move "fraudulent" and insisted the government had never recognised the judicial procedure.
Last week, Delaware Judge Leonard Stark authorised the sale of PDV Holding to an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management after confirming its $5.9 billion bid in a court-organised auction.
The ruling still requires authorisation from the US government.
Citgo, a subsidiary of state-run PDVSA, has been targeted by creditors claiming more than $20 billion in outstanding debts that Venezuela has been unable or unwilling to repay.
One claimant, Canadian mining company Crystallex, has pursued compensation for a mine expropriated by Caracas in 2011 and an unpaid arbitration award of $1.2 billion.
Rodriguez said Venezuela would "continue to defend its assets" and denounced the process as the result of US sanctions and political interference.
Washington and several allies do not recognise President Nicolas Maduro’s last two re-elections, and his government remains under extensive economic restrictions.
Caracas has long argued that Washington’s anti-drug operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific — which the US says target drug-smuggling vessels — are instead part of a broader strategy to weaken or remove Maduro.
For several years, Citgo was overseen by a board appointed by an opposition grouping that the US and other governments considered the legitimate political authority following the contested 2018 election.
That alignment later fractured amid an internal power struggle.
Lawyers representing Venezuela, Citgo, PDV Holding and mining company Gold Reserve appealed the Delaware decision on Monday, contesting the approval of the sale and the court’s handling of the auction process.
Caracas maintains that any sale of Citgo or its parent companies is illegal and vows to challenge the ruling through all available legal channels.
