The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has extended the deadline for approving and contracting the sale of Lukoil International GmbH and related assets to Russian Lukoil until 13 December 2025.
According to the department, any such transaction is directly subject to a separate OFAC authorisation.
In addition, the department allowed transactions with Bulgarian legal entities of the Russian company: Lukoil Neftohim Burgas JSC, Lukoil Bulgaria EOOD, Lukoil Aviation Bulgaria EOOD, Lukoil Bulgaria Bunker EOOD – until 29 April 2026.
In October, the US announced sanctions against Lukoil, which will come into force on 21 November. In response, the Russian company decided to sell its international assets. The first bidder was the Swiss company Gunvor, whose founders include Gennady Timchenko, a friend of Vladimir Putin. The US blocked the sale of the Swiss company’s assets. Lukoil has since asked the U.S. for more time to sell the assets, Reuters wrote.
Lukoil has remained Russia’s most active oil company abroad for decades. The company has three refineries in Europe, stakes in oil fields in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Mexico, Ghana, Egypt and Nigeria, and hundreds of petrol stations around the world, including in the United States. LUKOIL’s international assets account for over 0.5% of global oil. As of 2024, they were valued at about $22 billion.