Lukoil
Russia's largest private oil company; ISAB sale pending as OFAC licence rolls to 25 July.
OFAC's General Licence 131H, issued 24 July, is the eighth straight monthly rollover letting Lukoil International GmbH negotiate the sale of its remaining European refineries through 22 August, while a separate crude-in-transit waiver has stayed lapsed since 17 June.
Last refreshed: 3 August 2026 · Appears in 3 active topics
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European Oil Markets: GL 131G's perimeter never included ISABBackground
Lukoil is Russia's largest privately owned oil company and its second-largest producer, founded in 1991 as the successor to three Soviet-era oil-production associations in Western Siberia. It is headquartered in Moscow and listed on the London Stock Exchange as GDRs, giving it historically a more internationally oriented ownership structure than state-controlled peers such as Rosneft.
The US Treasury placed Lukoil back on its sanctions list on 16 April 2026, alongside Rosneft, as the prior crude-oil waiver lapsed, but granted it a retail wind-down exemption for its downstream distribution business . Long-serving chief executive Vagit Alekperov resigned in 2022 under sanctions pressure.
Lukoil International GmbH, its Austrian-registered subsidiary, remains under sustained divestment pressure and still holds Neftochim Burgas in Bulgaria and Petrotel Ploiesti in Romania. ISAB in Sicily, once part of the same portfolio, passed out of Lukoil's ownership in 2023 and falls outside every OFAC licence issued to the subsidiary since .
Two licences track different problems
OFAC issued General Licence 131H on 24 July, the eighth straight monthly rollover letting Lukoil International GmbH negotiate the sale of Neftochim Burgas and Petrotel Ploiesti, its remaining European refineries, through 22 August . Closing any actual sale still needs a separate, deal-specific OFAC licence; the rollover only keeps negotiations alive, and it does not cover payments for legal services.
The licence does not name ISAB in Sicily. Lukoil sold that refinery on in 2023 and now holds only a debt claim and a Milan seizure order against its former buyer's share capital . For Lukoil, ISAB's fate now runs on an Italian court's clock, not Washington's.
The crude waiver gap still bites
General Licence 134C, the waiver that let Western banks and insurers cover Russian crude cargoes, lapsed on 17 June with no successor; by 23 July the gap had reached 36 days, the longest in the licence series . For Lukoil, that raises legal risk for buyers of its crude specifically, pushing counterparties toward non-Western insurance rather than halting sales outright.
That gap runs on a separate clock from the LIG sale-negotiation window OFAC keeps renewing: one governs whether Lukoil's European refineries can change hands, the other whether its crude cargoes can find cover. Neither licence restores what the other lacks, and GL 131H does not touch the crude-waiver question at all.
Reference
What is Lukoil International GmbH and what refineries does it own?
What happens to the ISAB refinery in Sicily after the OFAC deadline expires?
What is the deadline for Lukoil to sell its European refineries?
What happens to Lukoil petrol stations in Europe after the SDN listing?
Why does Lukoil have a wind-down exemption when Rosneft doesn't?
