General License 131H

General License 131H was issued by OFAC on or around 25 July 2026, the eighth consecutive monthly extension authorising Lukoil International GmbH (LIG) to negotiate the sale of its own assets, running to 12:01 EDT on 22 August 2026 . Like every instalment in the series, it authorises negotiation and contingent contracts only; a separate, deal-specific OFAC transaction licence is required to close any sale, and none has been issued under this series. The licence names neither ISAB, Priolo Gargallo nor Italy.

The trade press routinely treats the 320,000 barrel-a-day ISAB refinery at Priolo, Sicily, as hostage to the GL 131 clock. It is not: ISAB Left the Lukoil perimeter in May 2023, when Litasco, Lukoil's Swiss trading Arm, sold the plant to GOI Energy, and GL 131G's text was confirmed to exclude it from scope. GOI Energy's own sale of ISAB to Ludoil Capital, agreed under an 18 May 2026 share-purchase agreement, runs on an entirely separate track gated by Italian Golden Power clearance, a Milan court seizure order and its own distinct OFAC transaction licence, none of which GL 131H's rollover touches .

GL 131H succeeded General License 131G, which lapsed on 25 July 2026, continuing the pattern of single-month renewals that has run since GL-131E in April 2026 without OFAC ever issuing the transaction licence needed to complete a sale. Each rollover signals that Lukoil International's own portfolio, now reduced to European assets such as Neftochim Burgas in Bulgaria and Petrotel Ploiesti in Romania, still lacks a confirmed buyer under the FAQ 1224 conditions requiring full severance from Lukoil and funds parked in a blocked US account. A desk pricing Mediterranean product supply off the ISAB sale should watch the Golden Power and Milan court tracks, not the 22 August GL 131 Deadline.