I had wondered about Conoco buying Crystallex to ensure the auction takes place. This would make sense if the story about about Conoco using their claims as a bid are true. There must be a cash component to any bid so what if Conoco paid $2B in cash that would be used to settle the debt to Crystallex who is first in line. They would be paying themselves if they purchased Crystallex or had a deal for Crystallex to not settle and force an auction. Probably lots of reasons why this isn't doable but I doubt the US government would oppose a US based company from winning the bid.

Just speculation on my part.