Citgo’s Insurance Suit over Seized Venezuelan Oil Gets Go-Ahead
Citgo Petroleum Corp. may move forward with an attempt to collect more than $40 million it claimed from insurers after Venezuelan authorities in 2020 seized almost a million barrels of its oil.
US District Judge Gregory Wood on Wednesday denied the insurers’ request to dismiss Citgo’s claims, writing that the company had established two important facts: that it owned the oil and that it may have lost it as a result of the political chaos gripping Venezuela, thereby triggering the insurrection clause in its insurance policy.
“When democracy falters, bad things happen,” the judge wrote, including insurance disputes that stem “from the implosion of a democracy.”
Citgo loaded the 960,000 barrels of crude oil on an oil tanker in Paria, Venezuela, in January 2019. As it was loading the oil, then-President Donald Trump sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned company PetrĂ³leos de Venezuela SA. That led to a dispute over who owned the oil and Venezueal, with the help of its military, seized it.
The case is Citgo Petroleum Corporation v. Ascot Underwriting Limited, for and on behalf of Lloyd’s Syndicate 1414, 1:21-cv-00389, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
- Insurers Get Green Light to Pay Less Than Billed Charges in Florida PIP Cases
- 4,800 Claims Handled by Unlicensed Adjusters in Florida After Irma, Lawsuit Says
- Apollo Accused in Lawsuit of Illegal Human Life Wagering Scheme
- Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp Now Faces $30 Billion Fire Claim Demand
- EVs Head for Junkyard as Mechanic Shortage Inflates Repair Costs
- California Chiropractor Sentenced to 54 Years for $150M Workers’ Comp Scheme
- Poll: Consumers OK with AI in P/C Insurance, but Not So Much for Claims and Underwriting
- CoreLogic Report Probes Evolving Severe Convective Storm Risk Landscape