Venezuela’s state-owned oil company has hired a French bank to help offload Citgo, its U.S. downstream entity, an executive at the company said. A senior official at state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, known by its initials PDVSA, told Argus Media on condition of anonymity the government hired French bank Lazard to help find buyers for Citgo. The Venezuelan Energy Ministry said in July it was considering separate offers for Citgo from Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan in the range of $10 billion to $15 billion.