June 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on

Friday extended a general license protecting Venezuela-owned

refiner Citgo Petroleum from creditors through December 20, the

department's website showed.

Washington has protected the Houston-based company from

creditors in recent years even amid a court-organized auction of

shares in its parent company, PDV Holding. Once selected, the

auction's winner must be approved by the Treasury Department's

Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The license temporarily bans transactions with a

Venezuela-issued bond collateralized with Citgo equity. The

previous license was set to expire on July 3.

As part of an eight-year case introduced by miner

Crystallex against Venezuela, a federal court in Delaware has

found Citgo's parent PDV Holding liable for Venezuela's debts

stemming from debt defaults and asset expropriations. The

auction, whose winner will by selected next month, is expected

to compensate some of those creditors.