New Jersey has long coveted Petty’s Island, 300 acres in the Delaware River off Pennsauken, as a potential environmental and recreational haven with its grand views of Philadelphia.

Originally the hunting grounds of Native Americans, the island was later farmed by Quakers. Folklore claims pirate landings and an overnight stay by Ben Franklin. In more recent years, redevelopment proposals envisioned a hotel and golf course before the state’s embrace of a nature preserve.

Citgo Petroleum Corp. — the Houston-based refining arm of Venezuela’s national oil company — has owned the island for 110 years, leaving a legacy of pollution from oil storage and distribution.

Now recent international events and a court ruling on Citgo have clouded the island’s immediate future while underscoring the reach of the petroleum industry.

Late last year, U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Stark in Delaware approved Amber Energy as buyer of Citgo’s Venezuelan parent company through a sale of shares to settle billions in debts, concluding a process that began in 2017. Amber Energy bid $5.9 billion in a court-organized auction.

Citgo owns a network of petroleum infrastructure that some analysts say could be worth up to $13 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Venezuelan officials immediately denounced the sale as “fraudulent” and appealed the decision. Citgo is a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

However, on Jan. 3, the U.S. captured Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the U.S. to face narco-conspiracy charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

It is no longer clear whether Venezuela will continue with an appeal. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is now running that country and is mapping out a vision for its vast crude oil reserves.

So it’s likely Amber Energy, an affiliate of activist hedge fund Elliott Management, will soon close on the arrangement to own Citgo — and presumably Petty’s Island.

Elliott Management was founded by Paul Singer. He or his firm have contributed of tens of millions to political campaigns or groups, including Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Amber Energy, through a spokesperson Braden Reddall, declined to comment this week. Reddall, however, noted in an email that the “transaction involving Citgo has not yet been completed.”

Citgo has long been working to eventually donate the island to the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust, which is overseen by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The DEP declined to comment.

Citgo and Petty’s Island

Petty’s Island was originally inhabited by the Indigenous Lenni-Lenape people, and stories abound about its history, according to a DEP website for the trust. The island was once owned by William Penn.

In 1678, then owner Elizabeth Kinsey, a Quaker, struck a deal to buy it from the Lenni-Lenape and allowed them to continue hunting and fishing — provided they agreed not to kill her hogs or set fire to her hayfields.

There are other tales of Blackbeard the pirate docking there and even Benjamin Franklin spending a night on the island, which was eventually named after John Petty, an 18th-century trader from Philadelphia.

The island had been used for farming, trading, and shipbuilding until Citgo, then an American company, began buying land there in 1916, continuing to do so until it owned the entire island by the 1950s. Venezuela’s PDVSA acquired ownership of Citgo in the 1980s.

In the early 2000s, the oil company sought to donate the island to New Jersey as a nature preserve, aligning with environmental efforts to conserve the land, which includes habitats for bald eagles, kestrels, and herons.

But in 2004, the state’s Natural Lands Trust rejected an offer from Citgo for a conservation easement under political pressure to develop it.

At the time, a development company in Raleigh, N.C., had planned a golf course, a hotel and conference center, and 300 homes for the island, which offers views of Philadelphia and Camden, but that proposal was abandoned.

In 2009, the Natural Lands Trust, created by the New Jersey Legislature to preserve land and protect nature, finally voted to accept the island from Citgo.

Then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez heralded the plans at the Summit of the Americas.

What is Elliott Management?

Singer, who leads Amber Energy’s parent company Elliott Management, was the seventh-largest donor in the 2024 election cycle, according to Open Secrets, a research group that tracks money in U.S. politics. That put him in a top 10 list that included Elon Musk, Timothy Melon, and Jeffrey Yass.

Singer contributed $43.2 million, with almost all going to conservative causes, including a $5 million contribution to Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC that supports Trump. And $2 million went to the Keystone Renewal PAC to support conservative candidates in Pennsylvania.

The order for the sale of Citgo to the arm of Singer’s hedge fund was the last major legal step to wrap claims by up to 15 creditors that began in 2017 for debt defaults.

The deal is expected to close in coming months. Amber Energy plans to retain the Citgo brand.

What’s happening on the island now?

Currently, the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust holds a conservation easement for the island that prevents any development.

The state’s goal is to turn the island into an urban nature reserve with an environmental center, according to the Center for Aquatic Sciences in Camden, which is partnering with the trust in the endeavor.

Public access to the island is permitted only as part of scheduled programs. The trust has built a main trail along the southern perimeter and added connector trails for a total of two miles. It has installed 13 exhibits and kiosks along the trails.

Transfer of the title of the island ultimately depends on Citgo, which is responsible for removing the petroleum infrastructure and cleaning up contamination.

But before Citgo can turn the title over to the trust, the DEP must certify that the land is cleaned to state standards, according to the most recent information available on the DEP website for the trust.

Last year, Citgo agreed to place $13.3 million in a trust fund to remediate “all hazardous substances, hazardous wastes, and pollutants discharged,” on the island.

If Amber Energy assumes all liabilities of Citgo, it would presumably be responsible for the cleaning and transfer of title under the conservation easement.

Reddall, the spokesperson for Amber Energy, declined to comment on the cleanup.

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