Saudis also acquired 24 distribution terminals, Aramco said in a statement. The Saudi firm also got the exclusive right to sell Shell-branded gasoline and diesel in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, the eastern half of Texas, and the majority of Florida.

The Gulf Coast refinery agreement was signed less than two months after US President Donald Trump met with Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House.

In April, several members of Congress wrote a letter to US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, expressing concern that Russia’s largest oil company, Rosneft, could take control of Texas-based oil company Citgo.

The takeover “could pose a grave threat to American energy security, impact the flow and price of gasoline for American consumers, and expose critical US infrastructure to national security threats,” they wrote.

Nearly 50 percent of the Houston-based corporation’s shares, which belong to Venezuela, were offered last year as collateral when Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA obtained a $1.5 billion loan from Russia’s Rosneft.