§9752 Concerns Over Pdvsa Transactions with Rosneft

Summary

The President must stop Rosneft from taking control of U.S. energy infrastructure owned by CITGO. Congress found that in late 2016 Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA used 49.9 percent of its U.S. subsidiary CITGO as collateral in a loan to Rosneft, leaving 100 percent of CITGO held as collateral. CITGO owns energy assets in 19 States, including pipelines, 48 terminals, and 3 refineries with a total refining capacity of 749,000 barrels per day; its Lake Charles, Louisiana refinery is the sixth largest in the United States. The Department of the Treasury sanctioned Rosneft and its Executive Chairman Igor Sechin after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine and illegal annexation of Crimea. The Department of Homeland Security calls the energy sector critical. Congress says Rosneft control would be a serious national security and energy risk and that a PDVSA default should be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. PDVSA = Venezuela’s state oil company. Rosneft = Russian government-controlled oil company. CITGO = PDVSA’s U.S. subsidiary. Within 90 days after December 20, 2019, the President must send a report assessing the national security risks if Russia acquired and controlled CITGO’s U.S. energy infrastructure to: the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate; the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives; and the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives.