CITGO refinery in Romeoville, once owned by Venezuela, sold in December

The U.S. strike on Venezuela on Jan. 3 and the subsequent arrest of its leader, Nicolás Maduro, likely won’t affect CITGO Petroleum Corporation Lemont Refinery, which is located in Romeoville.

In 1997, PDVSA, the national petroleum company of Venezuela, acquired 100 percent ownership of the refinery founded in 1925 and began operations as CITGO.

However, CITGO is no longer connected with the Maduro regime, according to the CITGO website.

And in December, CITGO was sold to Amber Energy for $5.9 billion “as part of a court-ordered auction to pay debts,” said Doug Pryor, president and CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development.

Venezuela is rejecting the sale and has appealed the court order.

“I expect Venezuela to continue to contest the sale,” Pryor said. “But don’t know how that plays out following the actions of this past weekend.”

Pryor said he’s not expecting any major shifts regarding economic impact in the United States, although it’s too early to know.

He also isn’t anticipating a change at CITGO Petroleum Corporation Lemont Refinery operations, although Pryor hasn’t directly discussed the events with their team and feels CITGO should be the one to comment about CITGO’s business, he said.

Shaw Local reached out to the refinery, which responded, “We have no comments.”

Pryor did say that since the refinery isn’t processing Venezuelan oil at that facility, their inputs shouldn’t be affected.

“There is some Venezuelan oil imported into the U.S., but it is only about 3.5% of crude imports, nearly all of which goes to the Gulf Coast,” Pryor said. “Venezuela’s biggest oil customer by far is China.”