By Marianna Parraga and Matt Spetalnick

HOUSTON/WASHINGTON – Citgo Petroleum’s supervisory boards, which are trying to prevent the collapse of America’s eighth-largest oil refiner, has held talks in Bogota with U.S. officials. The discussions were to seek Washington’s protection as Citgo negotiates with its creditors.

Citgo has run out of time and cannot reach agreements that will allow it to stay in Venezuelan control. It is stuck between the infighting of political parties that control it boards and a U.S. court ready to launch a forced sale as soon as next month.

Venezuelan representatives suggested that Citgo be extended protection during Bogota talks. However, this information has not yet been released. Three people who were present at the meeting say that the U.S. requested an official strategy to manage Venezuela’s foreign assets over the next year.

An American official confirms the meeting under condition of anonymity.

Venezuela would lose its most valuable foreign asset if it was forced to sell. Citgo, which has suffered severe losses already, was the subject of a U.S. inquiry into past management, and had to struggle for oil supplies after sanctions placed on PDVSA, Venezuela’s parent oil firm, by the U.S.

Since September, Citgo’s supervisory boards have pursued talks with creditors on payment proposals drafted by JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:) as Venezuela-linked debts have weighed.

The Venezuelan National Assembly is the one that controls supervision boards. However, negotiations have yet to be approved. The Assembly, which is led by the opposition, has failed several times to reach an agreement on how foreign assets should be managed.

“We need to do something,” Horacio Medina, the president of Citgo’s PDV ad-hoc Board, said after meeting with U.S. representatives in Bogota about this month’s proposal. The board is keen to negotiate with creditors. This is possible because of the current atmosphere.

Citgo, the symbol of Venezuela’s declining international reach, has been kept out by creditors that have won arbitration awards in excess of multibillions of dollars.

U.S. Protection is due to expire in January. This could lead to an auction by U.S. District Court Delaware, who will oversee the most urgent claim regarding Citgo’s assets.

(By Marianna Pararaga, Houston; Matt Spetalnick, Washington; editing by Gary McWilliams & David Gregorio