Lukoil

Lukoil is Russia's largest privately owned oil company and the second-largest oil producer overall. On 16 April 2026, OFAC placed Lukoil back on the SDN list as part of the wave of designations triggered by the expiry of General Licence 134A. Unlike Rosneft, Lukoil received a retail wind-down exemption extending to 29 October 2026, allowing its downstream retail and distribution operations to continue unwinding contractual obligations.

Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Moscow, Lukoil is the successor to three Soviet oil production associations in Western Siberia. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (as GDRs) and historically had a more internationally oriented ownership structure than state-controlled peers. Long-term CEO Vagit Alekperov resigned in 2022 following sanctions pressure. The company operates refineries across Russia and Europe and has downstream assets across former Soviet states. Lukoil owns Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, a major refinery in Bulgaria, which received a separate OFAC exemption.

The retail exemption reflects the complexity of Lukoil's European footprint, but its international refining assets face a harder constraint. A prospective buyer signed a sale agreement for ISAB (Sicily, ~320kbd) on 18 May 2026, and OFAC has since rolled the negotiation licence forward monthly rather than issue the separate transaction licence needed to close: General Licence 131G, issued 25 June 2026, is the seventh such rollover and runs to 25 July 2026 . As of mid-July the sale remains negotiation-only under GL-131G, still short of the transaction licence, Golden Power final order and antitrust clearance needed to close; who ultimately completes the purchase is still unresolved and Lowdown is not asserting a specific acquirer pending confirmation. LIG (Lukoil International GmbH) also encompasses Neftochim Burgas (Bulgaria) and Petrotel Ploiesti (Romania). OFAC's FAQ 1224 requires any buyer to fully sever LIG from Lukoil and place funds in a US-jurisdiction blocked account, a structure that has blocked completion across seven licence rollovers, leaving ISAB running but unsold rather than formally stranded.

The 26-day-and-counting lapse of the separate crude-oil waiver, General License 134C (unrenewed since 17 June, the longest gap of the war as of 13 July), does not affect the ISAB negotiation window: GL-131G governs the LIG sale process specifically and remains the operative instrument through 25 July.