A consortium led by energy and commodities company Vitol has placed a bid exceeding $10bn for Citgo Petroleum’s parent company PDV Holding.
The bid comes as competition intensifies for Venezuela’s most prized foreign asset, reported Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the offer.
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Submitted during the final hours of an auction organised by a US court, the bid includes about $5bn in cash and the remainder in credit bids for up to 14 claims.
The auction was overseen by a Delaware court officer and aims to settle claims from creditors seeking nearly $19bn in compensation after Venezuela’s asset expropriation and debt defaults.
US refiner Citgo’s 807,000bpd refining network and associated facilities are PDV Holding’s sole assets.
The Vitol-led offer also proposes approximately $2bn for defaulted Venezuelan bondholders.
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By GlobalDataDespite being the highest known bid, Vitol’s proposal is not guaranteed to win, as financial robustness and certainty of deal closure are also under scrutiny.
After a previous bid by Vitol was outdone by a $7.3bn offer from an Elliott Investment Management affiliate, Vitol returned with a new bid earlier this year. However, Red Tree Investments won that round with a $3.7bn offer and an agreement to pay bondholders.
The current bidding round, which concluded on 1 July, saw new participants and improved offers following recent court rulings that allowed the auction for PDV Holding to proceed.
Among the late submissions was an all-cash offer of approximately $8bn from a consortium led by Black Lion Capital Advisors and revised proposals from a subsidiary of Gold Reserve.
Despite the high stakes and last-minute bidding war, Citgo’s valuation may be affected by its recent performance downturn, with profits falling to $305m last year from $2bn in 2023.
In May 2025, Vitol entered a term sale and purchase agreement with Oman LNG.
