Citgo

Cities Service period

The company traces its heritage back to the early 1900s and oil entrepreneur Henry Latham Doherty.[5][6][7] After quickly climbing the ladder of success in the manufactured gas and electric utility world, Doherty in 1910 created Cities Service Gas Development Company, a West Virginia corporation, to supply gas and electricity to small public utilities.[8] He began by acquiring gas-producing properties in the mid-continent and southwest.[9]

The company then developed a pipeline system, tapping dozens of gas pools. To make this gas available to consumers, Doherty moved to acquire distributing companies and tied them into a common source of supply. Cities Service became the first company in the mid-continent to use the slack demand period of summer to refill depleted fields near its market areas. Thus, gas could be conveniently and inexpensively withdrawn during peak demand times. In 1931, Cities Service completed the Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, the nation's first long-distance high-pressure natural gas transportation system, a 24-inch pipeline 1,000 miles long from Amarillo, Texas, to Chicago.

A logical step in the company's program for finding and developing supplies of natural gas was its entry into the oil business. This move was marked by major discoveries at Augusta, Kansas, in 1914, and in El Dorado, Kansas in the Mid-Continent oil province a year later. In 1928, a Cities Service subsidiary, Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company, discovered the Oklahoma City Oil Field,[10] one of the world's largest. Another participated in the discovery of the East Texas Oil Field, which, in its time, was the most sensational on the globe.

Over three decades, the company sponsored the Cities Service Concerts on NBC radio. The long run of these musical broadcasts was heard on NBC from 1925 to 1956, encompassing a variety of vocalists and musicians. In 1944, it was retitled Highways in Melody, and later the series was known as The Cities Service Band of America. In 1964, the company moved its headquarters from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to Tulsa.

At the height of Cities Service's growth, Congress passed the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, which forced the company to divest itself of either its utility operations or its oil and gas holdings. Cities Service elected to remain in the petroleum business. The first steps to liquidate investments in its public utilities were taken in 1943 and affected over 250 different utility corporations.

At the same time, the government was nearing completion of a major refinery at Rose Bluff just outside Lake Charles, Louisiana, which would become the foundation of the company's manufacturing operation. Using designs developed by Cities Service and the Kellogg Co., the plant was dedicated only 18 months after groundbreaking. A month before Allied troops landed in France, it was turning out enough 100-octane aviation gasoline to fuel 1,000 daily bomber sorties from England to Germany. Government funding through the Defense Plant Corporation (DPC) also prompted Cities Service to build plants to manufacture butadiene, used to make synthetic rubber, and toluene, a fuel octane booster and solvent.

In the years that followed, Cities Service grew into a fully diversified oil and gas company with global operations. Its green, expanding circle marketing logo became a familiar sight across much of the nation. During this time CEOs such as W. Alton Jones and Burl S. Watson ran the company.

Cities Service Company inaugurated use of the Citgo brand in 1965 (officially styled "CITGO") for its refining, marketing and retail petroleum businesses (which became known internally as the RMT Division, for Refining, Marketing and Transportation). CITGO continued to be only a trademark, and not a company name, until the 1983 sale of what had been the RMT Division of Cities Service to Southland Corporation (now 7-Eleven Inc.).

Demise of Cities Service and birth of Citgo Petroleum Corporation

In 1982, T. Boone Pickens, founder of Mesa Petroleum, offered to buy Cities Service Company. Citgo responded by offering to buy Mesa,[11] which was the first use of what became known as the Pac-Man take-over defense; i.e., a counter-tender offer initiated by a takeover target. Cities Service also threatened to dissolve itself by incremental sales rather than being taken over by Mesa, stating that it believed that the pieces would sell for more than Pickens was offering for the whole. Cities Service Company located what they thought would be a "white knight" to give them a better deal and entered into a merger agreement with Gulf Oil Corporation. Late in the summer of 1982, Gulf Oil terminated the merger agreement claiming that Cities Service's reserve estimates were over-stated. Over fifteen years of litigation resulted. Ironically, two years later, Gulf Oil itself would collapse as a result of a Pickens-initiated takeover attempt.

In the chaos that ensued after Gulf Oil's termination of its deal, Cities Service eventually entered into a merger agreement with, and was acquired by, Occidental Petroleum Corporation—a deal that was closed in the fall of 1982. That same year, Cities Service Company transferred all of the assets of its Refining, Marketing and Transportation division (which comprised its refining and retail petroleum business) into the newly formed Citgo Petroleum Corporation subsidiary, to ease the divestiture of the division, which Occidental had no interest in retaining. Pursuant to an agreement entered into in 1982, Citgo and the Citgo and Cities Service brands were sold by Occidental in 1983 to Southland Corporation, original owners of the

Venezuelan ownership

Fifty percent of Citgo was sold to Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) in 1986, which acquired the remainder in 1990, resulting in the current ownership structure.[12][13][14][15] In September 2010, in connection with the centennial of its original owner, Cities Service Company, Citgo unveiled a new retail design.[16] Within five years, Citgo planned for all locations to display the new street image.[17] With full ownership of Citgo, PDVSA at its peak controlled 10% of the US domestic oil market, creating a lucrative export chain from Venezuelan oil to American consumers, as the two largest buyers of Venezuelan petroleum are the United States and China, respectively.[18]

Crisis in Venezuela

Following the death of Hugo Chávez in 2013, his successor Nicolás Maduro presided in office through an era of economic depression caused by decreasing oil prices and sanctions.[36][37][38] The destabilized economy resulted in hyperinflation, an economic depression, shortages in Venezuela and drastic increases in poverty, disease, child mortality, malnutrition, and crime.[39][40][41][42]

2019 U.S. sanctions

On January 28, 2019, the U.S. Government imposed sanctions on PDVSA, freezing its assets in the U.S., and barring any U.S. firms and citizens from doing business with it.[45][46][47] In February, Citgo cut ties with the PdVSA, and halted payments to them, placing them in a "blocked account". However, the sanctions limited Citgo's ability to refinance debt. In March, at the behest of the U.S. Treasury, 35 financial institutions secured a $1.2 billion loan to fund Citgo's daily operations and refinancing, allaying concerns about Citgo's ability to continue operating in the U.S.[4][48][49][50]

2020 bond

In 2020, Citgo borrowed money in the form of a bond, and used 50.1% of the company's equity as collateral. If the bond is not repaid, the institutional investors that lent the money will obtain ownership of the 50.1%.[52]

Possible bankruptcy

In May 2024, Bloomberg reported that opposition-appointed executives of Petroleos de Venezuela were considering placing Citgo into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to slow down or completely block the sale of oil assets under the company's control. The opposition's plan would help it retain control of its most important overseas asset, which is up for auction.[53]

Legal action against Citgo

On May 30, 2024, two former Citgo executives who were imprisoned by the Venezuelan government, sued Citgo for over $400 million, claiming that their imprisonment was a conspiracy and was wrongful, refused to keep them protected from harm, and increased emotional distress on both of them.[54]

Sale

In November 2025, Elliott Investment Management affiliate Amber Energy purchased Citgo's parent PDV holdings in a court-ordered auction for $5.9 billion.[55][56] Venezuela rejected the legitimacy of the sale, with Vice President Delcy Rodriguez calling it "fraudulent".[57]

United States–Venezuela relations

Texaco sold some Citgo gas stations in the southeast when Chevron gained exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name in the U.S. in June 2006. On September 27, 2006, the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores announced its 20-year contract with Citgo was coming to an end and would not be renewed. 7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Chabris said "Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president. Certainly Chavez's position and statements over the past year or so didn't tempt us to stay with Citgo."[58]

7-Eleven stations subsequently went either unbranded or switched to competitor brands, most notably Marathon, which owned rival chain Speedway at the time.

Former refineries

In 1901, the Warner-Quinlan Asphalt Company purchased several properties in Linden, New Jersey, for use as an asphalt manufacturing plant at the Tremley Point development, later a part of the planned Montgomery Terminal.[72][73] In 1937, Cities Services took over substantially all assets of Warner-Quinlan under a bankruptcy reorganization, including the Linden plant.[74] The plant suffered several major fires and explosions. A tank exploded in July 1914,[75]

President

• 1) Sam J. Susser, 1983 – February 1, 1985
• 2) Ronald E. Hall, February 1, 1985 – May 1 1995
• 3) Ralph S. Cunningham, May 1, 1995 – July 1, 1997
• 4) David James Tippeconnic, July 1, 1997 – October 16, 2000
• 5) Oswaldo Contreras Maza, October 16, 2000 – July 10, 2003
• 6) Luis Marin, July 10, 2003 – February 28, 2005
• 7) Felix Rodriguez, February 28, 2005 – May 2007
• 8) Alejandro Granado, May 2007 – June 2013
• 9) Nelson Martinez, June 2013 – January 2017
• 10) José Pereira (acting), January 2017 – November 2018
• 11) Asdrúbal Chávez, November 28, 2017 – February 2019
• 12) Luisa Palacios (interim), February 2019 – August 2019
• 13) Carlos E. Jorda, August 2019 – present