A federal appeals court denied a motion by a Canadian mining company to expedite an appeal of an order allowing it to seize shares of Citgo Petroleum's parent company to enforce a $1.2 billion award against Venezuela.

Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that oral argument on the Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. appeal would proceed normally. Crystallex International Corp.. claimed the state-owned oil company was helping the Venezuelan government avoid the judgment.

Venezuela was accused of improperly terminating Crystallex's rights to an untapped gold reserve during a push to nationalize its gold mines.

Crystallex said in a Dec. 21 court filing that PDVSA breached a settlement agreement required it to stay the appeal. PDVSA, however, countered it was not a party to the settlement and accused Crystallex of trying to mislead the court.

Restrepo's one-page order denied Crystallex's motion without addressing the parties' contentions.

Venezuela is appealing multiple decisions by U.S. Chief District Judge Leonard P. Stark, which paved the way for Crystallex to seize Citgo shares to satisfy a 2016 arbitration award over lost mineral rights. In August, Stark ruled PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, was an alter ego of the Venezuelan government, which exerted extensive control over its business operations. The ruling authorized a writ of attachment for shares of PDVSA, which owns Citgo operations in the United States.

Crystallex revealed its settlement in court filings last month, saying it established a framework for resolving the dispute. According to court papers, Venezuela completed an up-front payment of $425 million Nov. 23 on top of $75 million paid earlier.

In its motion with the Third Circuit, Crystallex said the agreement obligated PDVSA to stay its appeal to give Venezuela more time to gather collateral to secure the balance.

“PDVSA's actions constitute a clear breach of the Settlement Agreement and make it urgent that Crystallex immediately resume its enforcement efforts against Venezuela's property in Delaware and elsewhere,” argued Crystallex's attorneys at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Richards, Layton & Finger.

PDVSA, in its response, questioned Crystallex's motives for expedited review filed at 10 p.m. Dec. 21 heading into the four-day Christmas break. The company denied signing the settlement agreement between Crystallex and Venezuela and accused Crystallex of misrepresenting the basis for its argument.

“The primary basis for Crystallex's argument is the text of a document appended to the declaration of Crystallex's counsel that is represented to be a true and correct copy of the Agreement,” PDVSA said. “It is not the agreement. Crystallex knows it is not the agreement, and its attempt to mislead this court is nothing less than sanctionable.”

Briefing on PDVSA's appeal is scheduled to conclude Jan. 30. A date for oral arguments has not yet been set.

Crystallex is represented by Robert L. Weigel, Jason W. Myatt, Rahim Moloo and Miguel A. Estrada of Gibson Dunn's New York and Washington offices. Raymond J. DiCamillo, Jeffrey L. Moyer and Travis S. Hunter of Richards Layton are acting as local counsel.

PDVSA is represented by Joseph D. Pizzurro, Kevin A. Meehan, Julia B. Mosse and Juan Perla of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle in New York and Samuel T. Hirzel II of Heyman Enerio Gattuso & Hirzel in Wilmington, Delaware.

The case is captioned Crystallex International v. Venezuela.