A 300-acre island in the Delaware River known as Petty’s Island, long owned by Venezuela’s state-linked oil company through its U.S. refining arm, is on the verge of potentially passing into the hands of a major U.S. political donor.
Petty’s Island — which sits just off New Jersey with views of Philadelphia and has historically been used for oil storage — has been controlled by Citgo for more than a century. A recent U.S. court decision approved the sale of Citgo’s parent company to an affiliate of a Florida-based hedge fund, an entity linked to investor and prominent conservative donor Paul Singer.
If that sale is completed and regulatory approvals follow, ownership of Citgo and its assets would transfer to Singer’s investment group. That acquisition would likely include the island itself, although the transaction has not yet been finalized and Venezuelan officials have objected to the sale.
New Jersey had planned to transform Petty’s Island into a nature reserve after decades of industrial use, aiming to open the land to public access and environmental restoration. For now, the island remains under Citgo’s ownership while the legal and geopolitical situation continues to evolve.