US extends licence for Lukoil foreign asset sale talks to 21 November

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has extended by a month the licence for the sale of Lukoil's foreign assets, RIA Novosti, Interfax, TASS, Kommersant and Vedomosti reported on 21 October. The permission for actions related to negotiating and concluding a deal to sell Lukoil International GmbH (LIG) now runs until 21 November. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]

Interfax said the licence, which was due to expire on 22 October, allows negotiations and entry into conditional agreements with Lukoil for the sale of LIG, which holds the company's foreign assets, or any company it controls. Interfax added that any deals must be approved by a separate OFAC permission. Kommersant said the licence was issued in October 2025 and that the US Treasury regularly extends it. [ 2 , 4 , 5 ]

Interfax reported that OFAC added Lukoil and a number of its subsidiaries to its SDN sanctions list on 22 October 2025, after which Lukoil announced it would sell its foreign assets. Lukoil accepted an offer from the trader Gunvor and the key terms were agreed, but the deal became impossible because the US Treasury did not approve it, Interfax said. [ 2 ]

At the end of January 2026 Lukoil signed a contract with the US investment firm Carlyle to sell LIG. Kommersant, which valued the foreign assets at $20 billion, said OFAC did not approve it. The documents differ on timing: Interfax said the contract expired in July without OFAC approval, while Vedomosti said the agreement lost force on 8 October because OFAC had not approved it. [ 2 , 4 , 5 ]

Interfax said LIG's 2025 report, dated 30 September, states that intensive negotiations are under way with other interested parties. Interfax, citing the Financial Times, reported that the financier Todd Boehly, a former owner of Chelsea football club, had secured backing from the US government and Gulf figures to bid for the assets. According to Interfax, his consortium includes the US International Development Finance Corporation and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother of the UAE president, as well as the Qatari Al-Hayat family. Kommersant also said an investor backed by a US state agency and by investors from the UAE and Qatar is interested in the deal. [ 2 , 4 ]

Vedomosti reported that on 21 October Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, after Vladimir Putin's talks with US representatives in St Petersburg, said Moscow and Washington are discussing a number of large economic projects, including issues related to the Lukoil sanctions. [ 5 ]