Chavez bemoans US regulation and Citgo profitability
The human quote machine and general despot of Venezuela Hugo Chavez is once again in the news, this time for bad mouthing the Venezuelan-owned company known as Citgo. Citgo refines petroleum products and operates gas stations in the US. It also finances prominent billboards at the professional baseball fields in Houston and Boston.
"Citgo is bad business. We have not been able to get out of it, we are subject to US law," Mr. Chavez said on a late night TV appearance following a tour of Europe, Russia and the Middle East during which he announced the sale of some Venezuelan oil assets. Reuters reported the comments in a brief news item that can be found here.
"That company has eight refineries, I don't know how many tanks, it distributes fuel via 8,000 stations in the US yet it makes us no profit," Mr. Chavez said.
What he did not say was that he was looking to sell the company. However, when parsing Mr. Chavez’s statements, oftentimes he says what he doesn’t mean and doesn’t say what he means, so the jury is still out as to whether or not Citgo is being shopped around.
Comments