Russian oil giant Lukoil has announced a sweeping plan to sell off its international assets, a dramatic move triggered by a new wave of United States sanctions aimed at squeezing Moscow’s economic lifelines and pressuring the Kremlin to end its war in Ukraine. The decision, unveiled on October 28, 2025, marks a major shift for Russia’s second-largest oil producer and signals the far-reaching impact of Western efforts to curtail the country’s energy revenues.
The sanctions, imposed last week by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, target Lukoil and Rosneft—Russia’s two largest oil companies, which together account for more than half of the nation’s oil output. According to the Associated Press, the measures are designed not only to freeze all Lukoil and Rosneft assets in the United States but also to bar American firms from doing business with them. The sanctions carry an additional threat: secondary restrictions on foreign banks that handle transactions for these companies, effectively isolating them from the dominant U.S. financial system.
“Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, as reported by Nexstar Media. “Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire. Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s effort to end yet another war. We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
Lukoil’s international footprint is significant. The company’s foreign subsidiaries include oil refineries in Bulgaria and Romania, a 45% stake in a refinery in the Netherlands, and fuel retail chains across Southeast Europe, including Turkey, North Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro. In Turkey alone, Lukoil operates more than 600 service stations, having entered the market in 2008 with a $500 million acquisition of Akpet. The company also supplies crude oil to the STAR refinery, operated by Azerbaijan’s SOCAR.
Among the most prominent assets up for sale is the Lukoil Neftohim Burgas refinery in Bulgaria, the largest in the Balkans with a capacity of 190,000 barrels per day. Analysts have warned that a shutdown of the Burgas refinery could spark a regional energy crisis and fuel price spikes, highlighting the facility’s crucial role in supplying almost the entire Bulgarian market. In Romania, the Petrotel-Lukoil refinery, with a capacity of about 2.4 million tons per year, is also on the auction block.
The asset sales are being conducted under a wind-down license issued by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), allowing transactions with Lukoil until November 21, 2025. Lukoil has indicated it may seek an extension of this license if necessary to ensure uninterrupted operations during the transition. “The consideration of bids from potential purchasers has been started,” the company said in a statement on its website, as cited by Nexstar Media.
According to Manifold Times, the sanctions’ ripple effects extend beyond oil production and refining. Maritime and shipping activities have also been disrupted, with Panama canceling the registration of 17 vessels sanctioned by the U.S. and Australia imposing its first-ever sanctions against Russian shadow fleet vessels. These measures are intended to close loopholes that might allow Russian oil to reach international markets despite the sanctions.
In Bulgaria, lawmakers have moved swiftly to assert control over the local impact of Lukoil’s divestment. The Bulgarian parliament has adopted legislative amendments requiring that any sale of Lukoil’s assets in the country be cleared by both the government and the intelligence service, according to regional energy news sources. Officials in both Bulgaria and Romania are working to facilitate the sale of Lukoil’s regional holdings before the sanctions take full effect, hoping to avoid energy supply disruptions.
The European Union is also tightening the screws on Russian energy. Brussels has announced a ban on imports of Russian natural gas starting January 1, 2026—a move that, according to the European Commission, will not apply to the transit of Russian gas or affect deliveries to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Meanwhile, the Serbia-based oil company NIS, owned by Russia’s Gazprom, has also come under U.S. sanctions, further complicating the regional energy landscape.
The international reach of Lukoil’s portfolio is vast. Beyond Europe, the company has stakes in Iraq’s West Qurna 2 oil field, Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas project, and energy ventures in Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In total, Lukoil maintains interests in oil and gas projects across 11 countries, underscoring the global scale of the divestment now underway.
As Lukoil scrambles to review bids and manage a complex transition, the immediate consequences are being felt in energy markets. India and China—two of Russia’s largest oil customers—have reportedly pulled back from sales in response to the sanctions, according to Nexstar Media. However, not all countries are lining up behind the U.S. measures. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is expected to visit Washington in hopes of securing special permission to continue importing Russian energy, reflecting the delicate balance many European nations must strike between energy security and geopolitical alignment.
The reactions from Moscow and Kyiv have been predictably stark. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the sanctions as “a big step,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned them as “an unfriendly act,” insisting that Moscow “will not be intimidated,” as reported by various international outlets.
For Lukoil, the challenge now is to maintain stable operations during the handover to new owners and to ensure that the sale of its massive international portfolio does not trigger supply shocks or further economic fallout in the affected regions. The company has pledged to keep its subsidiaries running smoothly throughout the process, though it acknowledges that an extension of the OFAC license may be necessary if the divestment cannot be completed by the November 21 deadline.
As the clock ticks down, the world is watching closely to see how this unprecedented sell-off unfolds—and whether it will hasten the end of the war in Ukraine or simply mark another chapter in the ongoing economic standoff between Russia and the West.
