Lukoil to Sell Foreign Assets After U.S., U.K. Sanctions Tighten Grip on Russian Oil Sector
Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, has announced plans to sell its international assets following new rounds of sanctions imposed by the United States and United Kingdom over Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
The Gaze reports this, referring to Reuters.
In a statement released on Monday, the company said it has begun reviewing offers from potential buyers for its overseas operations.
The divestment will proceed under a U.S. Treasury OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control) wind-down license, allowing Lukoil to gradually suspend its foreign activities. The company added that it may seek to extend the license to ensure continuity for international subsidiaries during the transition period.
The decision marks one of the most significant moves by a Russian corporation since Western powers began enforcing sweeping sanctions on Russia’s energy sector in 2022.
The U.S. Treasury’s latest measures, announced on October 22, targeted both Lukoil and Rosneft, citing Russia’s failure to demonstrate serious commitment to ending the war.
Earlier, on October 15, Britain expanded its own sanctions to include the two oil giants and 44 “shadow-fleet” tankers, vessels accused of evading oil-price caps and masking Russian crude shipments through opaque ownership networks.
Lukoil, headquartered in Moscow, accounts for roughly 2% of global oil output and operates an extensive international portfolio.
Among its most prominent holdings is a 75 percent stake in Iraq’s West Qurna-2 oil field, one of the largest in the world, producing nearly 480,000 barrels per day as of April, according to Russian media.
In Europe, the company owns the Lukoil Neftohim Burgas refinery in Bulgaria, the largest in the Balkans, and the Petrotel refinery in Romania. It also supplies crude oil to Hungary, Slovakia, and Turkey’s STAR refinery, which is owned by Azerbaijan’s SOCAR.
Lukoil maintains additional stakes in oil terminals and retail fuel chains across Europe, and operates energy projects in Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
As The Gaze reported earlier, in a recent interview with CBS, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that new U.S. sanctions against leading Russian oil companies are already hitting Russia’s economy, despite the Kremlin’s claims to the contrary.