The move by the US to put pressure on Moscow in the Ukraine negotiations. A Russian oil giant is targeted
Lukoil Neftochim Burgas Refinery in Bulgaria. Photo: Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP / Profimedia
The United States has slowed the sale of the international assets of Russian oil giant Lukoil to pressure Russia in peace talks over Ukraine, four sources familiar with the talks said, according to the Reuters news agency.
The Lukoil company was included in the list of US sanctioned entities in October 2025. This move forced the Russian oil giant to sell its assets abroad. Under the US sanctions, Lukoil had until February 28, 2026 to sell its assets abroad.
On Thursday, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) will announce that it has extended the deadline to April 1 for concluding agreements to sell Lukoil's foreign assets, according to an OFAC document seen by Reuters.
US, Russian and Ukrainian government officials have made no progress in talks in Geneva, Abu Dhabi and Miami in recent weeks to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine.
Those talks also included US sanctions targeting Russia's main oil producer, state company Rosneft, as well as second-biggest producer Lukoil, according to sources cited by Reuters.
The next round of talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine is scheduled to take place in March.
OFAC has already extended three times the deadline for potential buyers to negotiate with Lukoil for its assets abroad, valued at $22 billion, since Washington imposed sanctions on the two Russian oil companies last October, notes Agerpres.
The sanctions forced the sale of Lukoil's international portfolio, which includes oil fields, refineries and gas stations from Iraq to Finland.
The sale of Lukoil assets attracted the interest of more than ten bidders, from the American oil giant ExxonMobil to the former owner of Pornhub.
OFAC handled the sale of Lukoil assets, but recently the proceedings were expanded to include a number of senior officials from the White House, Treasury and State Department, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent being more directly involved, according to sources cited by Reuters.
Companies interested in taking over Lukoil's assets
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his intelligence services had told him that Russian emissary Kirill Dmitriev had proposed an economic deal valued at $12 trillion to the Trump administration.
That deal also includes Lukoil assets, which could further complicate a sale, according to a source close to the file.
Several companies have signed deals with Lukoil, including US fund Carlyle Group, Saudi Arabia's Midad Energy and US billionaire Todd Boehly, who works with investment bank Xtellus Partners and fund Alliance Investment Partners.
Also, a partnership between the Chevron oil group and the Quantum Capital Group fund is in talks over Lukoil's assets, but no agreement has yet been reached on the terms.
Officially, at the end of January, Lukoil announced that it reached an agreement on the sale of the Lukoil International GmbH division, which regroups the company's foreign assets, to the American private equity fund Carlyle Group. The deal does not include assets in Kazakhstan, the Russian energy producer said in a statement. Lukoil added that the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and that it is in parallel continuing discussions with other potential buyers.
In Romania, Lukoil owns the Petrotel refinery and sells fuels through a network of 300 distribution stations.
