HOUSTON -- CITGO Petroleum Corp. will be run under new leadership after its parent company, Venezuela-run Petr aleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), moved former president and CEO Felix Rodriguez out to head up its upstream Veba Oel joint venture in Germany.
In Rodriguez's place, the CITGO board of directors appointed Alejandro Granado as the new leader of the Houston-based company as of May 18.
Granado graduated with a degree in engineering/refining processes from the Ploiesti Oil & Gas Institute in Romania in 1981. He holds [image-nocss] a master's degree in refining and petrochemicals from the same institution.
Granado began his career in the oil industry in 1981 with Intevep's Processes Development Department. In 1985, he became resident engineer for the BTX project in Chicago. In 1987, he began working for Veba Oel in Germany as a process engineer.
In 1990, he was assigned to BP in London as a leader in the process-engineering unit dedicated to the Oxygenates Project for the el Palito and Amuay Cardon refineries. Between 1991 and 1997, he held different supervisory and managerial positions in the Process Engineering department of Intevep. He was later transferred to CITGO Petroleum Corp., where he acted as technology manager at the Lemont, Ill., refinery.
In 2000, he became the manager for PDVSA's Process Engineering Department. He subsequently became manager of conceptual and basic engineering, a position he held until December 2002, when he became general assistant manager of refining in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela.
In July 2003, PDVSA's board of directors approved his appointment as managing director of refining for PDVSA's Eastern Division. In June 2004, he was appointed managing director of domestic and international refining, and he has been vice president of PDV Marina since 2004.
In January 2005, he was appointed vice president of PDVSA, responsible for the refining area both at a domestic and international level. On May, 18, 2007, he was appointed President and CEO of CITGO Petroleum Corp.
As for Rodriguez, he served in the lead role at CITGO since January 2005 after nearly 30 years in various positions with PDVSA.
As leader of Veba Oel, he'll head up the leading oil company in Germany, together with its subsidiary Aral. The company's operations cover activities from the wellhead to the gasoline pump and oil-fired heating systems, according to the company Web site.
Our aim is to harness oil, the most important energy in the world, for use by man, the Web site states. We satisfy our customers' heating and mobility needs with oil products such as motor fuels and heating oil as well as services.
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