Activist investor Elliott Investment Management on Friday was named the presumptive winner in a U.S. court auction of shares in a parent of oil refiner Citgo Petroleum with a bid that puts an up to $7.

An Elliott Investment Management affiliate won an auction for Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s parent company with a bid for $7.3 billion, clearing a key hurdle in the fund’s push to acquire an oil refiner that was once Venezuela’s largest foreign asset.

Elliott and other U.S. investors have agreed to pay nearly $7.3 billion to acquire Citgo’s parent company, with proceeds set to help compensate creditors of the bankrupt Venezuelan government.