![]() It’s like a state ministry.”īut even if sanctions are lifted, there would still be one more hurdle that Rosneft would have to jump to assert ownership over PDVSA’s collateral after a default: the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS. “Generally, Rosneft is pretty cautious internationally, it’s a state actor. markets are interesting for Russian companies, but they stay away because of the sanctions,” Ponomarev said. Ponomarev noted that although Venezuela and Russia have long-standing friendly ties, it is unusual that they would agree to a deal involving U.S. “Right now you have Trump and he seems favorable to Russia, and so they think in a year maybe the sanctions are gone, and maybe it goes through,” said Ponomarev, during a phone call from Kiev, Ukraine, where he lives in self-imposed exile after being the lone member of Russia’s State Duma to vote against the annexation of Crimea. Ilya Ponomarev, a Russian politician and former vice president of Yukos - which was Russia’s largest oil and gas corporation before the early 2000s, when the Russian government seized its assets, absorbing them into Rosneft - said in an interview with CBS News that Rosneft is likely betting the sanctions will be lifted. The New York Times later reported that in early February two Trump business associates met with a Ukrainian politician about a plan to lift Russian sanctions as part of an effort to solve the violent conflict simmering between Ukraine and Russia. 13, following media reports about the call. It is not clear which sanctions were discussed and Flynn resigned on Feb. surveillance of Russian officials picked up soon-to-be National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s voice on a call with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, discussing Obama administration sanctions on Russia. Questions swirl around resignation of Trump's national security adviser 03:41 The Houston-based corporation estimates in the court filing that PDVSA owes it “multiple billions of dollars” in damages.ĬonocoPhillips added Rosneft to the lawsuit after the Russian oil company and PDVSA agreed to the loan. The Rosneft lien was included as an exhibit in a federal lawsuit for alleged unpaid debts filed by ConocoPhillips, another oil company, against PDVSA. PDVSA is believed to owe billions of dollars to corporations that sued after the Venezuelan government seized international oil and mining operations based in the country a decade ago during President Hugo Chavez’s reign. ![]() “It’s not unusual from a legal perspective - companies use stock as collateral all the time - but it’s very unusual from a geopolitical perspective to have a Russian company and a Venezuelan company doing business in Delaware. “If there was a default under the loan, Rosneft would have ownership on that stock,” Jordan said. The players involved make the deal particularly newsworthy, said Philip Jordan, an oil, gas and mineral law partner at the Dallas-based firm Gray Reed & McGraw. That same day, attorneys for Rosneft filed the lien with the Delaware Department of State, asserting that Rosneft - whose CEO, Igor Sechin, has long been considered Putin’s right-hand man - would claim the collateralized 49.9 percent if the struggling Venezuelan debtor defaults or folds. Those experts also emphasize that the White House has the power to block the deal - either on national security grounds or simply by leaving in place Obama administration sanctions against Russia.Ĭitgo’s parent company, the Venezuela state-owned PDVSA, pledged a 49.9 percent stake in Citgo to Rosneft as collateral for a $1.5 billion loan signed on Nov. Russian ownership of a large portion of a U.S.-based oil company would be unprecedented, according to experts contacted by CBS News. If that claim succeeds, Rosneft, which is run by one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, would own a sizable chunk of a company that is among the 10 largest petroleum refiners in America. oil company Citgo Petroleum if Citgo’s cash-strapped parent company defaults on billions in loans, according to a lien Rosneft recently filed in Delaware. Rosneft, an oil corporation majority-owned by the Russian government, says it has the right to claim an ownership stake in U.S.
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