Citgo Petroleum Corp. went on the attack Monday in new ads that blast what it calls "misleading and inaccurate" criticisms of the Houston-based arm of the Venezuelan oil company. | “The ads reaffirm its commitment to the U.S. market and work to counter the backlash from a speech a month ago by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in which he called President Bush "the devil" during a visit to the United Nations.” |
In the first ad, which appeared Monday in the Washington Post, Citgo President Felix Rodriguez said critics are doing more damage to Citgo's thousands of U.S. employees and small-business owners who sell Citgo gasoline than to the company itself. "We understand that, as a corporation, we cannot always control the environment in which we operate, but we feel compelled to set the record straight out of respect for our employees, business partners and consumers," he said.
Other national and regional newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, will run the ads later this week, and TV commercials are on the way, Citgo spokesman David McColluma said. But one analyst said it remains to be seen whether many consumers connect Citgo and the Venezuelan national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, better known as PDVSA. "For all intents and purposes, most people don't even know they're owned by PDVSA," Fadel Gheit, with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, said.