HOUSTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Lawyers representing

Venezuela on Tuesday requested a four-month pause in a U.S.

court-ordered auction of shares in a parent of Houston-based oil

refiner Citgo Petroleum to pay creditors, according to a filing

in U.S. District court, Delaware.

Venezuela-owned Citgo is the crown jewel of the South

American country's assets overseas. Creditors have targeted the

refining company as they seek compensation for late President

Hugo Chavez' nationalization wave and President Nicolas Maduro's

failed debt payments.

The court was scheduled to disclose the auction's winning

bidder and sale terms on Monday. But there was no court filing

on a winner by Tuesday morning.

The court officer overseeing the auction, Robert Pincus,

did not reply to requests for comment.

"Complications in the sale process threaten to undercut"

the court's desire to obtain a high price for Citgo-parent

shares for creditors seeking more than $21 billion in claims,

the lawyers wrote.

They cited the July disputed presidential election in

Venezuela, which has sent the nation into political chaos, and

recent parallel lawsuits introduced in U.S. court by holders of

Venezuelan bonds seeking compensation for defaults.

The rulings involving 2020 PDVSA bondholders "risk

unnecessarily diverting sale proceeds away from" Delaware court

creditors, the Venezuelan lawyers said in the motion before the

court.