Did Trump Admin Sell Largest U.S. Oil Refinery to Saudi Arabia?

The U.S.’ troubled and sophisticated historical past with the Saudi authorities has continued to trigger anguish for the Biden Administration, notably in mild of power shortages and the battle in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden has just lately warned of “penalties” for Riyadh after Saudi Aramco’s choice to chop oil manufacturing as a part of an OPEC+ settlement with Russia.

With America’s power independence on the road, some now declare that former president Donald Trump traded one of many nation’s largest power belongings to a nation dealing with accusations of cozying as much as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

The Declare

A tweet posted on October 10, 2022, questioned why Saudi Arabia “purchased 100% of Port Arthur in Texas…America’s largest oil refinery…accomplished in 2017 (throughout Trump’s Administration).”

Another tweet, posted on October 8, 2022, requested extra bluntly: “Why did the Trump admin and Texas Gov Abbott promote the most important US oil refinery to Saudi Arabia in 2020…?”

The Details

Whereas there are connections linking Trump, Greg Abbott, and Saudi oil, the buyout of the Port Arthur oil refinery doesn’t seem to have had vital oversight from both the previous president or the Texas governor.

It is true that Trump met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman throughout his presidency, a transfer which arguably signaled that the U.S. was able to develop political and monetary ties with the Center Jap power powerhouse.

This grew to become extra problematic after the loss of life of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Newer revelations about Trump’s possession of categorised paperwork at Mar-a-Lago led many to recall how the previous president authorised the switch of nuclear know-how to Saudi Arabia as properly, although the hyperlink is tenuous and speculative.

In 2018, Abbot was anticipated to satisfy with Salman, Saudi Vitality Minister Khalid al-Falih, and Saudi Aramco Chief Govt Amin Nasser to debate the potential enlargement into shale discipline refinery.

Nonetheless, the Port Arthur deal was a part of an settlement that precedes the Trump administration, going again to the time when state-owned Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell break up belongings of a joint U.S. enterprise enterprise that included the Texas oil refinery.

In 2016, the 2 corporations mentioned they deliberate to divide the belongings of Motiva Enterprises, a U.S. enterprise shaped in 1998, which included the Port Arthur refinery.

Generally known as the Motiva Refinery, it’s the largest oil refinery in North America.

Within the break up, Saudi Aramco took full possession of Port Arthur, Texas, whereas Shell took possession of refineries in Norco and Convent, Louisiana.

This asset division was accomplished just a few months into the beginning of the Trump Administration.

Then in 2019, Saudi Aramco purchased out Shell’s 50 p.c share of the oil refinery for $631 million.

Whereas it happened throughout Trump and Abbott’s time of their respective places of work, it isn’t clear what both of their administrations would have needed to do with this handover.

The Trump Administration did intervene within the import and distribution of oil within the U.S. elsewhere, when it imposed sanctions on Venezuelan agency PDVSA in 2019. It expanded these sanctions in 2021 to others who had later helped PDVSA promote crude oil to Asia.

In a case that arguably has some parallels with Port Arthur, the U.S. Treasury below Trump blocked Venezuela’s collectors from seizing the U.S.-based Citgo refinery to gather on PDVSA, the state oil firm, debt.

Nonetheless, this coverage was largely an effort to punish the federal government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. didn’t acknowledge because the nation’s reliable chief on the time.

“The US is holding accountable these chargeable for Venezuela’s tragic decline, and can proceed to make use of the complete suite of its diplomatic and financial instruments to assist Interim President Juan Guaidó, the Nationwide Meeting, and the Venezuelan folks’s efforts to revive their democracy,” mentioned then Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin in January 2019.

So, whereas there’s scope for presidency intervention within the export, import, and distribution of oil within the U.S., there isn’t a obligation for state or federal authorities to dam the sale or contain itself within the break-up of belongings amongst two corporations that hereto shared stakes in a personal enterprise enterprise.

In any case, although the administration’s rising ties with the Kingdom (given the affect that Riyadh wields in OPEC+ coverage) could looking back present trigger for concern, there merely is not ample proof to point out that the Trump Administration or Greg Abbott had any government or remaining oversight on the sale of Port Arthur to Saudi Aramco.

Newsweek has contacted Trump, Saudi Aramco, Shell, and Abbott for remark.

The Ruling

False.

Whereas Donald Trump and Greg Abbott each have had dealings with the Saudi authorities, there is not proof to point out that both had any vital half within the sale of Port Arthur (past not vetoing the deal).

Though the refinery was purchased in full by state-owned Saudi Aramco from Shell, the 2 corporations beforehand owned the corporate collectively (in a enterprise lengthy predating the Trump presidency), and the sale to Aramco was a buy-out of Shell’s remaining share of it, not an outright buy.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Truth Test staff