CITGO Petroleum history

In 1913 alone Doherty purchased 53 utility companies, bringing together a total of 170 companies under the umbrella of Cities Service.

1915: Cities Service founds Empire Gas & Fuel, a subsidiary devoted to oil exploration.

From its founder’s contribution to lighting the Statue of Liberty for the first time in 1916, to supplying fuel to United States forces during World War II, Cities Service built its foundation as a prominent fixture in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

By 1917 Empire had more than 1,000 wells in production, and it produced over 36 million barrels in that year alone.

The German defeat of Russia in 1918 and its capture of the Galician and Romanian oil fields also led to an Allied shortage of oil in Europe.

In 1928, a Cities Service subsidiary, Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company, discovered the Oklahoma City field, one of the world's largest.

1930: The company begins to market petroleum products through retail outlets.

In 1931, Cities Service completed 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.

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.

When Doherty died in December 1939, his place was taken by W. Alton Jones, who had served Cities Service ably as vice-president.

They included the S.S. Cities Service Empire, which was torpedoed off the coast of Florida in February 1942.

The first steps to liquidate investments in its public utilities were taken in 1943 and affected over 250 different utility corporations.

In 1944, it was retitled Highways in Melody, and later the series was known as The Cities Service Band of America.

By 1958 all utility assets had been sold, and Cities Service had become a fully integrated oil company.

On March 1, 1962, Jones, on his way to meet former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a longtime friend, was killed in an air crash near New York.

Late in the summer of 1982, Gulf Oil terminated the merger agreement claiming that Cities Service's reserve estimates were over-stated.

1983: CITGO Petroleum Corporation, the refining, marketing, and transportation arm of Cities Service, is incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary.

A nationwide overcapacity in the refining business led to increased refining costs and falling profits, and in 1984 CITGO posted a pretax loss of $50 million.

In 1985 Southland cut CITGO's output by half.

In 1989, according to the industry publication National Petroleum News, the company's share of total United States gasoline sales was 4.5 percent, which put CITGO in ninth place.

Sales of gasoline to branded distributors increased 16 percent during 1990 alone.

In February 1991, CITGO bought the remaining 50 percent of Seaview.

The company continued to grow, and in 1993, with Lyondell Petrochemical Co., CITGO formed LYONDELL-CITGO Refining Co.

Also in 1994, CITGO purchased the CASA Pipeline, which opened up regions in southern Texas.

Several significant events occurred in 1997 for CITGO. The estimated $1.1 billion LYONDELL-CITGO refinery upgrade was completed in early 1997.

In May 1999 CITGO formed CITGO Co.

In September 2010, in connection with the centennial of its original owner, Cities Service Company, Citgo unveiled a new retail design.

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.

In October 2010, then President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, announced the intention to have PDVSA sell its Citgo subsidiary calling it a "bad business" and citing low profits since 2006. It was confirmed in January 2015 that Citgo would not be sold, but rather bonds were sold by Citgo to give a dividend to PDVSA. The Bonds sold included a $1.5bn five-year bond and a $1.3bn term loan to be fully repaid in three and a half years.

In a 2016 deal, Venezuela pledged 49.9% of Citgo to Russian oil firm Rosneft as collateral for a $1.5 billion loan.

Other Venezuelan oil executives were arrested in what was seen as a purge designed to bolster more economic power behind President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, Asdrúbal Chávez, cousin of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, was chosen as president of Citgo in November 2017.

In July 2018, Citgo president Asdrúbal Chávez had his work and tourist visas revoked by the United States and was ordered to leave the country within thirty days.

On January 28, 2019, the United States Government imposed sanctions on PdVSA, freezing its assets in the United States, and barring any United States firms and citizens from doing business with it.