Lukoil Agrees to Sell Foreign Assets to U.S. Firm Carlyle Group in Twenty-Two Billion Dollar Deal

Russia’s oil giant Lukoil, which is under U.S. sanctions, has announced that it has reached an agreement with the American private equity firm Carlyle to sell its foreign assets, AFP reported.

In a statement, Lukoil said it had “entered into an agreement with the U.S. investment company Carlyle for the sale of Lukoil International GmbH.” The company уточни that the deal does not include assets located in Kazakhstan.

According to analysts cited by Reuters, Lukoil’s overseas assets are valued at approximately billion. These include four subsidiaries in Bulgaria, among them the Neftochim Burgas refinery and Lukoil’s nationwide fuel station network.

Lukoil stressed that the agreement is non-exclusive and subject to a number of preliminary conditions, including obtaining all required regulatory approvals. Among them is authorization from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for the transaction with Carlyle.

In October 2025, the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom placed Lukoil on a sanctions list, forcing the company’s management to urgently seek buyers for its international assets. On January 15, OFAC extended the license allowing the sale of Lukoil’s foreign assets until February 28.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Lukoil and Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft last year, citing the lack of progress in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. The move was part of efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to pressure Moscow into agreeing to a peace deal to end the conflict in Ukraine, described as the deadliest war in Europe since World War II.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury has already blocked two previous attempts to sell Lukoil’s overseas assets: a proposed deal with Swiss trading group Gunvor in October and a share-swap transaction organized by Xtellus Partners, the former U.S. unit of Russia’s VTB Bank, in December.