CITGO to team up with Houston police in unusual social initiative

Venezuelan-owned US refiner and retailer Citgo will partner with the Houston police to tackle a teenage practice known as skipping school which is when kids go elsewhere instead of showing up for classes.

“Representatives from CITGO (…) are visiting schools in the Alief, Houston, and Spring Branch to honor students who have demonstrated improved attendance through the fall semester. Under the program, now in its second year, the students will receive Kindle Fire tablets in recognition of their achievement,” the company said.
A total of 100 tablets were going to be given in January to those teenagers that have shown attendance progress, the fuel refiner and retailer said.
Citgo has been involved in other initiatives such as one in which it distributed heating oil at reduced social prices to some of the poorer US communities.
The press release was issued in the same month in which company officials said that the company was no longer for sale.
Late last year the entire company had been reportedly about to be sold by its owner which is the state oil company of Venezuela.
PDVSA bought Citgo decades ago with the intention of using it to sell in the US products made from Venezuelan crude.
However, in more recent years there has been speculation that Venezuelan officials are fearful of any potential retaliatory expropriation or simply that the cash-strapped country could need the funds in a context in which oil prices have crumbled.
Citgo has a network of nearly 6,000 local independently owned and operated Citgo branded stations. Based in Houston, the company is a refiner, transporter, and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products.