General License 131F

General Licence 131F is the sixth rolling extension in OFAC's Lukoil-sale series, issued 28 May 2026 and superseding GL 131E of 29 April. It authorises negotiation and contingent contracts for the sale of Lukoil International GmbH (LIG), the Swiss-registered holding company that controls Lukoil's non-Russian refining assets, with a hard deadline of 12:01 EDT on 27 June 2026 . The licence does not authorise the asset transfer itself; a separate specific licence from OFAC is required to close any transaction.

The licence series runs parallel to OFAC's Russian vessel-services bridge: GL 134C, which covers in-transit Russian crude completions, expires 17 June, leaving a ten-day gap before the Lukoil sale clock itself runs out . The accompanying FAQ 1224 update sets three buyer conditions: complete severance of LIG from Lukoil, all funds owed parked in a US-jurisdiction blocked account, and no upfront value provided to Lukoil. Those conditions require a buyer to front capital with zero recourse, which is the structural reason the series has rolled six times without a close. The covered assets are ISAB (Priolo Gargallo, Sicily, ~800kbd), Neftochim Burgas (Bulgaria, ~117kbd), and Petrotel Ploiesti (Romania, ~99kbd): approximately one million barrels a day of Mediterranean and Adriatic sour-crude throughput .

Six consecutive rollovers without a close indicate that the FAQ 1224 blocked-account structure remains the principal obstacle. Each extension resets a June cliff rather than resolving the underlying deal, so the licence is best read as a managed regulatory holding pattern rather than imminent divestment. If GL 131F expires without a successor, the European refinery assets freeze inside the SDN perimeter and operational continuity exemptions would need separate OFAC action to sustain.