By Marianna Parraga

HOUSTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge allowed an affiliate of hedge fund Elliott Investment Management on Thursday to move towards completing its offer for Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum’s parent through a court-ordered auction of shares, while restricting rival bidder Gold Reserve from doing the same.

This followed a separate judge in another U.S. court upholding the validity of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA’s 2020 bonds on Thursday.

Delaware Judge Leonard Stark instructed a court officer overseeing the auction of shares to terminate a stock purchase agreement (SPA) with a Gold Reserve subsidiary and sign a new one with Elliott’s affiliate Amber Energy, Gold Reserve said in a release.

That came at the end of a 4-day sale hearing, where some of the 15 Venezuela-link

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