Exxon director joins Elliott group seeking to acquire Citgo Petroleum

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil board director Gregory Goff recently joined a newly formed Elliott Investment Management-backed company seeking to acquire control of Venezuela-owned oil refiner Citgo Petroleum.

Citgo and Exxon are rivals in the motor fuels and lubrications business. Exxon is the third-largest U.S. oil refiner by capacity and Citgo is the seventh-largest.

Goff, who joined Exxon in 2021 as part of a dissident slate of directors, was on Friday identified as CEO of Amber Energy, an Elliott affiliate, in a statement heralding its selection as the successful bidder in a U.S. court auction of shares in Citgo parent PDV Holding.

Exxon had no immediate comment on Goff’s status at the company. The company’s board of directors webpage lists Goff as chairman of its audit committee and member of its executive and finance committees.

A spokesperson for Amber Energy declined to comment.

Amber’s bid puts an up to $7.28 billion enterprise value on the Houston-based oil refiner. Shares in a Citgo parent whose only asset is the refiner are being auctioned to repay up to $21.3 billion in claims against Venezuela and state oil firm PDVSA for expropriations and debt defaults.

Citgo owns refineries in Texas, Louisiana and Illinois, an extensive fuel storage and pipeline network, and 4,200 independent retailers. It had 2023 net profit of $2 billion.

Amber’s disclosure of the Citgo bid describes Goff as having 40 years of experience in energy and energy-related businesses. It makes no mention his Exxon tenure, but does describe him as the former chairman and CEO of oil refiner Andeavor and CEO of Claire Technologies Inc.

He was a vice chairman at Marathon Petroleum until 2019. Elliott made billions of dollars after taking a stake in Marathon and prodding it to improve operations and hive off pieces of its business. Marathon sold its Speedway retail fuel business to 7-Eleven for $21 billion in 2021.

(Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)