Sicily

Sicily's importance to European oil markets centres on Priolo Gargallo, home to the ISAB refinery, a 320,000 barrels-per-day complex that is the island's largest industrial employer and one of the Mediterranean's biggest crude-processing facilities. Owned since 2022 by LITASCO SA, a subsidiary of Russia's Lukoil, ISAB has operated under a series of OFAC General Licences authorising only negotiation of a sale, not its completion. General Licence 131G, issued 25 June 2026, is the seventh consecutive monthly extension of that negotiation window and runs to 25 July 2026; ISAB kept running past the prior 28 June Deadline with no OFAC transaction licence yet issued to close the sale.

With the sale unresolved after seven consecutive licence extensions, ISAB remains the largest stranded Lukoil European asset. Continued limbo affects the Mediterranean crude-to-product spread, regional employment in eastern Sicily, and Italy's refining balance; Rome has sought emergency EU carve-outs to keep the refinery supplied with Russian crude, exposing the tension between EU sanctions coherence and member-state energy dependency.