Citgo Beats Reinsurers on $54 Million Award Over Seized Oil

A group of Lloyd’s of London syndicates are on the hook for a $54 million jury award for Citgo Petroleum Corp. stemming from the the Venezuelan government’s seizure of a crude oil shipment in 2019.

A lower court correctly held that actions by Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela—prompting sanctions during President Donald Trump’s first term that led to the dispute surrounding the crude oil sale—constituted an “insurrection” covered by the reinsurers’ policy, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday.

Citgo—whose parent company is currently being auctioned off by a Delaware court—sued the reinsurers in 2021 in ...