Rosneft

Rosneft is Russia's largest oil producer and one of the world's biggest publicly traded oil companies by reserves. The Russian state holds a controlling stake through Rosneftegaz, with BP retaining a 19.75% shareholding. On 16 April 2026, OFAC redesignated Rosneft onto the SDN list in a coordinated US, UK, and EU action, closing the loophole created by the expiry of General Licence 134A and ending the transitional period during which Western entities could wind down energy transactions without penalty .

Rosneft was built into a national champion through the forced acquisition of Yukos assets from 2004. Under CEO Igor Sechin, a close associate of President Putin, it expanded across upstream, refining, and trading. Its largest customers are Indian and Chinese refiners, who absorbed the bulk of exports redirected from European buyers after 2022. The company operates over 40 refineries in Russia and holds stakes in projects in Venezuela, Vietnam, and Iraq. It is the primary supplier of KEBCO-grade Russian crude to European refiners operating under pre-sanctions contracts, making it a central target of successive Western sanctions rounds. On 28 May 2026, OFAC added Ivan Sechin, son of Igor Sechin, to the SDN list under EO 14024, a personal-liability escalation intended to tighten pressure on the Sechin network specifically .

The April SDN redesignation creates compliance obligations for any non-US person whose transactions touch the US financial system. Indian and Chinese importers operating in dollars must use alternative settlement currencies, adding costs to the 4-5 million Barrels Per Day Rosneft exports. Ukrainian drone strikes have also degraded Russian domestic refining capacity, with Reuters reporting halted or reduced operations across six major central Russian refineries by late May 2026, affecting roughly 25% of Russian total refining throughput .