(Reuters) -A $7.38 billion bid by a unit of Toronto-listed miner Gold Reserve was named preliminary winner of an auction of shares in the parent of Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum, organized by a U.S. court to pay creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in the South American country. If the offer is approved, proceeds from the auction of PDV Holding would be enough to compensate 11 of the 15 creditors fighting in U.S. courts since 2017 to recover billions of dollars after Venezuela's wave of nationalizations, an officer overseeing the auction said in one of the filings. Bermuda-based Gold Reserve expects to have its own $1.18 billion claim compensated from the proceeds, following the expropriation of its mining assets in Venezuela.