[StBernard] Citgo Could Run Chalmette Refinery -PdVSA Board Member

[Westley Annis]

Citgo Could Run Chalmette Refinery -PdVSA Board Member
 
May 08, 2008: 04:23 PM EST


CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- Venezuela's Citgo Corp. could become the operator of a
U.S. refinery in Chalmette, La., a Venezuelan official said Thursday.

"Citgo is an option" to become a new operator, Eulogio Del Pino, a board
member for Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, told reporters on the
sidelines of the first meeting of the South American Energy Council in
Caracas.

The Chalmette refinery is jointly owned by PdVSA and ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM).
The partners are currently negotiating what to do with the refinery
following a compensation dispute stemming from Venezuela's nationalization
of Exxon's assets in the country.

Del Pino said both partners are now in talks to determine a new operator for
the refinery and noted that Citgo, which is a unit of PdVSA in the U.S.,
could operate it.

Exxon filed for arbitration late last year after President Hugo Chavez
ordered the nationalization of a heavy crude upgrader operated by the U.S.
company. 

-By Raul Gallegos, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-212-564-1339; raul.gallegos@
dowjones.com