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OFAC Extends the License for the Sale of Lukoil's Foreign Assets Until October 22, 2026

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), part of the Treasury of the United States, has extended from September 19 to October 22, 2026 the license that authorizes negotiations and conditional agreements with Lukoil on the sale of Lukoil International GmbH (LIG) or any entity it controls. Any transactions concluded on the basis of such agreements still require separate approval from the regulator, Interfax reported on September 18, 2026.

The license: what it authorizes and what it does not

The extended license covers negotiations and the signing of conditional agreements with Lukoil regarding the sale of Lukoil International GmbH (LIG) or any entity controlled by the company. It does not by itself clear the deals: according to the report, any transactions concluded on the basis of such agreements require separate approval from OFAC. The extension moves the deadline of the sale process from September 19 to October 22, 2026, giving the parties additional time to negotiate terms and to seek the approvals that the sanctions regime requires.

Oil terminal pipelines beside coastal storage tanks
Oil terminal pipelines beside coastal storage tanks

From the SDN listing to the Carlyle agreement

The licensing regime traces back to October 22, 2025, when OFAC added Lukoil and its subsidiaries to the SDN List. Following the listing, Lukoil agreed to sell its foreign assets, and two buyer tracks emerged. The buyout offer from Gunvor was accepted, but the U.S. Treasury denied approval for that transaction. The agreement signed with Carlyle in late January 2026 remains in place and is awaiting OFAC approval.

  1. October 22, 2025 — OFAC adds Lukoil and its subsidiaries to the SDN List; Lukoil then agrees to sell its foreign assets;
  2. the Gunvor buyout offer is accepted, but the U.S. Treasury denies approval for the transaction;
  3. late January 2026 — the agreement with Carlyle is signed and awaits OFAC approval;
  4. September 19 to October 22, 2026 — the license for negotiations and conditional agreements on the sale of LIG is extended.

Two buyer tracks, two different statuses

The two tracks stand at opposite points of the approval process: the Gunvor offer, although accepted, was denied approval by the U.S. Treasury, while the Carlyle agreement signed in late January 2026 is still pending the regulator's decision. The extended license keeps the negotiation window open while that decision is awaited.

A calendar with marked day cells and a document card, illustrating the extension of the Lukoil sale license from September 19 to October 22, 2026
The license runs to October 22, 2026, while transactions with filling stations outside Russia and Bulgarian assets are approved until October 29, 2026.

Filling stations, Bulgarian assets and unaffected services

Separately from the sale license, transactions with Lukoil filling stations outside Russia and with the company's Bulgarian assets are approved until October 29, 2026. The restrictions also left a set of service categories untouched:

These categories were not affected by the restrictions, so the corresponding service operations continue outside the scope of the sale-related licensing regime.

The international footprint at the time of the sanctions

At the time the sanctions were introduced, Lukoil's international business spanned upstream projects, refining and retail. The company held projects in eleven countries:

Refining assets were located in Bulgaria, Romania and the Netherlands, and the retail network comprised 2,500 filling stations in 19 countries.

Reserves, production and refining figures of the international business

The scale of the assets covered by the sale process is described by the following figures:

Taken together, the reserves, production, refining and retail figures describe the international perimeter that the extended license keeps in the sale process until October 22, 2026, with every transaction still subject to separate approval.

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