US extends deadline for sale of Lukoil's foreign assets

The United States has slowed down the procedures for the sale of Russian oil giant Lukoil's international assets, with the aim of using them as a bargaining chip in peace talks in Ukraine, four sources close to the discussions told Reuters, according to Agerpres.

Lukoil was included in the list of entities sanctioned by the US in October 2025. This move forced the Russian oil giant to sell its foreign assets. According to US sanctions, Lukoil has a deadline until February 28, 2026, to sell its foreign assets.

Yesterday, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department was to announce that it had extended the deadline, from February 28 to April 1, for concluding agreements to sell Lukoil's foreign assets, according to an OFAC document consulted by Reuters.

U.S., 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. The talks have also included U.S. sanctions targeting Russia's top oil producer, state-owned Rosneft, as well as its second-largest producer, Lukoil, according to sources cited by Reuters.

The next round of talks between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine is scheduled to take place in March.

OFAC has already extended the deadline for potential buyers to negotiate with Lukoil for its $22 billion in foreign assets three times since Washington imposed sanctions on the two Russian oil companies last October.

The sanctions have 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 has attracted interest from more than a dozen bidders, from US oil giant ExxonMobil to the former owner of Pornhub.

OFAC has been handling the sale of Lukoil assets, but the process has recently been expanded to include senior officials from the White House, Treasury and State Departments, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent more directly involved, according to sources cited by Reuters.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his intelligence services had told him that Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev had proposed an economic deal worth $12 trillion to the Trump administration. The deal includes Lukoil assets, which could further complicate a sale, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Several companies have signed deals with Lukoil, including the American fund Carlyle Group, Saudi Arabia's Midad Energy and American billionaire Todd Boehly, who is working with investment bank Xtellus Partners and the Alliance Investment Partners fund. A partnership between oil group Chevron and the Quantum Capital Group fund is also 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 had 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 agreement 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 in parallel, talks with other potential buyers are continuing.