A U.S. appeals court said Venezuela’s stake in U.S.-based oil refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp. could be seized to satisfy a judgment against the country, dealing a blow to its U.S.-backed opposition government, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit yesterday sided with Crystallex International Corp., a defunct Canadian gold miner that has laid claim to Citgo’s valuable Gulf Coast crude refineries to collect on a $1.4 billion debt. The ruling further clouds the future of Citgo, which has considered filing for bankruptcy to sort out competing claims from creditors. As Venezuela’s largest seizable asset in the U.S., Citgo is an obvious source of compensation for bondholders and multinational companies that are owed billions of dollars and haven’t been paid during the country’s lengthy economic meltdown. Of all the claimants circling Citgo, Crystallex was the first to fight its way to the company’s front door, winning permission from a Delaware federal judge last year to seize shares in Citgo’s U.S. parent company.
