The Citgo Petroleum Corporation company now has a shield of protection against the creditors of the Petróleos de Venezuela bonds (PDVSA 2020) who want to collect the debt of interest due and capital with the sale of the shares or the refineries. This reservation is valid until January 19, 2021, which is just one day before the presidential inauguration in the United States.

The Treasury Department issued an extension of the safeguard of the main Venezuelan asset abroad with the recently issued 5E license . This means that the 2020 PDVSA bondholders will not be able to move forward with any legal action to collect the guarantee on Citgo until January of next year, unless the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) does so. expressly allow.

"During this period, transactions related to the sale or transfer of Citgo shares in relation to the 8.5% bond of PDVSA 2020 are prohibited , unless specifically authorized by Ofac," the US authority detailed on its page. official website .

The striking thing about the 5E License is that its expiration is just one day before January 20, 2021, when by law Donald Trump or Joe Biden has to be sworn in as the president of the United States for the next four years.

This detail of the date reveals that the next president of the North American country will be the one who will make the final decision on whether the holders of the PDVSA 2020 bond will finally have the green light to go after the Venezuelan oil company. So far Citgo's most valuable assets are the three refineries , which together process about 769,000 barrels of oil a day.

Pending trial  

The prohibition to sell or transfer Citgo shares was issued, for the first time, in October 2019. The OFAC maintains these successive renewals every 90 days from that date, while in parallel there were some conversations for a restructuring or refinancing agreement of the past due payments of interest and principal of this debt of the PDVSA 2020.

The central argument of the National Assembly chaired by Juan Guaidó is that all these PDVSA 2020 papers were issued without the endorsement of the Legislative Power and without complying with the constitutional provisions. Its judicial objective, in fact, is that this debt is extinguished. The judicial process adds several delays due to US foreign policy, but oil analysis firms such as Argus calculate that the final decision cannot be extended beyond January 2021.

Investor groups Ashmore, Fidelity and T Rowe Price are the main funds that seek to collect with the guarantee of 8.5% of Citgo shares. This clause was the attraction that Nicolás Maduro's team added to get the bondholders to agree to the refinancing of these papers in 2016.

These direct creditors of the PDvsa 2020 bond, in fact, would be privileged subjects when the sale of the shares or the Citgo refineries is authorized. The list of those interested in collecting debts also includes the Canadian mining company Crystallex or the US oil company ConocoPhillips.