Citgo cuts Lake Charles rates on pipeline outage

Citgo has reduced rates at its 425,000 b/d refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in response to the outage of the massive Colonial Pipeline refined products system.

Citgo cut rates after Colonial Pipeline reported shutting its system to address a ransomware attack discovered late last week. The 5,500-mile (8,851km) pipeline network moves more than 2.5mn b/d of gasoline and diesel from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi through the southeast and up into the US Atlantic coast.

"Citgo will continue working with Colonial to move product when able to do so," the company said.

The Lake Charles refinery processes heavy and sour crudes, including Brazilian, Colombian and Mexican exports. Citgo, the US refining subsidiary of Venezuelan national oil company PdV, was once a regular importer of Venezuelan crude before US sanctions blocked that trade in 2019.

By Elliott Blackburn