Pdvsa may lose USD 233.6 million due to LyondellBasell bankruptcy
The unit of the Lyondell refinery in Houston imported an average of 198,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Venezuela in the first nine months of 2008
Energy
The US operations of LyondellBasell, the world's third-largest petrochemical company, filed for bankruptcy protection under the weight of a massive debt burden and slumping demand for its products, Reuters reported.
The company had taken on billions of dollars in debt obligations a year ago, when billionaire Len Blavatnik led a USD 12.7 billion leveraged buyout of US firm Lyondell by Basell of the Netherlands.
The New York bankruptcy filing on Tuesday included almost 80 units of the company and encompassed its US operations and a European financing arm.
Among LyondellBasell's largest creditors were Venezuelan oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa), Algerian energy group Sonatrach, Exxon Mobil Corp and Dow Chemical Co.
According to Bloomberg, Pdvsa was listed as the third largest unsecured creditor of the company, with a USD 233.6 million debt.
The unit of the Lyondell refinery in Houston imported an average of 198,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Venezuela in the first nine months of 2008, according to US Energy Department data, Bloomberg reported. The refinery has a contract to buy 230,000 barrels per day from Pdvsa
