By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Potential buyers from at least six leading oil companies have visited - one as recently as this week - Citgo Petroleum Corp's refinery in Illinois and three firms have shown keen interest in its Texas plant, four sources familiar with efforts to sell the assets said.
It's unclear, however, if Citgo's owner, Venezuela's national oil company PDVSA will go ahead with a sale of its U.S. refining and marketing unit. Both Venezuela's president and finance minister have said in the past month that Citgo's assets won't be sold.
But Lazard Ltd, the investment bank hired by Citgo to carry out the sale, is still marketing the refinery, three people told Reuters this week.
A Citgo spokesman did not respond when asked about visits to the refineries made by potential buyers.
Cash-strapped PDVSA put Citgo up for sale in September after months of rumors about the company's future. PDVSA has indicated Citgo's U.S. assets will fetch at least $10 billion, but some analysts have said they may bring only a third of that amount.
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Citgo's three plants include the 427,800 barrels per day (bpd) refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the 172,045 bpd Lemont, Illinois refinery and the 163,000 bpd Corpus Christi refinery. The sources did not say if potential buyers had visited the Lake Charles refinery.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Terry Wade)