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By Deisy Buitrago
CARACAS, June 14 (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil minister, Pedro Tellechea, said on Friday a U.S. federal court auctioning shares of Houston-based refiner Citgo Petroleum's parent should halt the sale process as Venezuelans are about to lose a strategic foreign asset.
The deadline for submitting offers in a second bidding round was on Tuesday, with the sale expected to be completed month. Crystallex introduced the case seven years ago in Delaware that has allowed the miner and 17 other creditors to jointly claim $21.3 billion for expropriations and debt defaults in Venezuela.
Representatives of Venezuela's political opposition and boards supervising the seventh-largest U.S. refiner this month asked the White House and Congress to pause the auction for 60 days until a presidential election is completed in Venezuela.
But President Nicolas Maduro's government wants an indefinite halt to the court-ordered process.
"Did they ask Venezuelans what to do with our assets?," Oil Minister Tellechea, who is also head of Citgo's ultimate parent, state company PDVSA, told journalists on the sidelines of an event in Caracas.
"Our goods are being sold without asking us for authorization, without making any consultation," he added.
The auction, whose first bidding round in January was called "disappointing" by lawyers representing Citgo, has recently attracted big- investors, including Elliott Investment Management, Centerview Partners and U.S. energy companies such as ConocoPhillips COP.N and Koch Industries.
Miner Gold Reserve GRZ.V, whose $1-billion claim against Venezuela was cleared by the court for repayment from the auction's proceeds, submitted a credit bid, it said this week.
Tellechea also said the South American country's crude output continues rising to 950,000 barrels per day, and foreign and local companies have been receiving individual U.S. licenses to do business in Venezuela, following the -renewal of a broader U.S. license in April.
(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago, Editing by Marianna Parraga and Rod Nickel)
((marianna.parraga@thomsonreuters.com; +1 713 371 7559; Reuters Messaging: @mariannaparraga))