Mystik Lubricants, a brand for products of the state-owned Venezuelan oil company Citgo, was a sponsor of the Todd Palin/Scott Davis team in this year's Iron Dog snowmachine race. The company also supplied all competitors with engine oil and volunteers with safety vests, reports a Washington Post politics blog. Continued on jump

As a vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin condemned Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as a "dictator" and called for "energy independence ... to allow us to be less and less reliant on someone like Hugo Chavez."

Venezuela, one of the top suppliers of oil to the United States, "wanted to use energy sources as a weapon" under Chavez, she said.

But Palin's anti-Venezuela sentiments do not appear to extend to her husband, whose snowmobile racing team was sponsored by a division of Citgo, the retail arm of Venezuela's state-owned oil and gas company.

A Palin spokesperson referred questions to Iron Dog officials, who along with a Citgo spokesperson weren't immedately able to provide details of the Davis-Palin sponsorship deal. The Mystik link to Palin and the Iron Dog was first reported last week on the Alaska blog The Mudflats.

Citgo has in recent years offered a heating fuel giveaway for Alaska villagers.