Carlyle Group

Carlyle Group's roughly $22bn agreement to acquire Lukoil International GmbH's remaining European assets sits stuck behind the same OFAC gate that has blocked those assets' sale all year. General Licence 131G authorises negotiation only for LIG and units in which it holds a majority stake, and expires 25 July 2026 with no transaction licence yet issued.

The deal covers LIG's remaining European refineries, Neftochim Burgas in Bulgaria and Petrotel Ploiesti in Romania. ISAB, the Sicilian refinery once linked to Lukoil, is not among them: Litasco sold it to GOI Energy in May 2023, well before this negotiation began, and GOI is now selling on to Ludoil Energy, a separate transaction decided by an Italian buyer and a Milan court rather than by OFAC.

Carlyle is a global alternative asset manager headquartered in Washington, D.c. since its 1987 founding, investing across private equity, credit and real assets well beyond energy; the Lukoil negotiation is one deal within a FAR larger portfolio. It stands as the largest test yet of whether a Western private-equity buyer can extract sanctions-entangled Russian-owned assets from OFAC's perimeter without falling foul of the licensing regime that has stalled Lukoil's European divestment throughout 2026.