Venezuela’s Citgo Is Pushed One Step Closer to Sale

A federal appeals court declined to stop a planned sale of Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp., advancing an auction process engineered by one of the country’s many unpaid creditors. The ruling issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit late Friday marks a setback for Venezuela’s state energy company, which has tried desperately to keep control of Citgo amid a deepening financial crisis in the country. Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, relies on Citgo’s network of U.S. refineries to process heavy Venezuelan crude shipped across the Caribbean and to generate much-needed hard currency. More…