© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the American unit of PDVSA Citgo Petroleum is seen at a gas station in Stowell, Texas, U.S., June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Oil chief executive Luis Giusti Lugo has been removed from the board of Houston-based refiner Citgo Petroleum, the director of the company’s watchdog said on Monday.
“The board of directors of Citgo Holding agreed two weeks ago to ask him to resign,” Horacio Medina, director of the special board of PDV, said without explaining why.
Medina added that Giusti was officially notified on Friday. Citgo, the US arm of Venezuela’s state-owned company PDVSA, is controlled by the Venezuelan opposition through a chain of supervisory boards.
Giusti, the son of the former president of PDVSA, replaced CEO Carlos Jorda in a reshuffle of the Citgo board last June. That shake-up has resulted in five appointees linked to various Venezuelan opposition parties, some of whom have left temporarily.
Last month, Robert Kent was added to the board of Citgo Petroleum.
Citgo, which on Monday no longer lists its chief executive as a member of its board, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
