US Investors Close to Buying Lukoil’s Foreign Assets, Sources Told Reuters

A group of investors, led by US billionaire Todd Boehly, is allegedly close to taking over the international assets of sanctioned Russian oil giant Lukoil, as Washington expands its economic ties with Moscow. According to a Reuters exclusive published on Tuesday, Nov. 3, four people familiar with the sale said a deal is expected within weeks. Three of them said that a bank acting for the consortium had already bought billions of dollars’ worth of frozen Lukoil shares from Western investment funds.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Rather than paying cash, the consortium purportedly plans to exchange for the company’s foreign assets, including overseas oil fields, refineries and gas stations. Lukoil did not respond to the agency’s request for comment at the time of the report. How the swap would work Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Western investment funds holding Lukoil shares have been unable to sell or trade them. Since the shares were frozen and could no longer be traded, they were removed from major stock market indices that track emerging economies, and the funds wrote down their value. According to Reuters’ sources, the bank bought the shares from around 10 American and British funds, as well as from US depositary banks holding them for retail investors, paying 30 cents on the dollar. Capital Group was among the Western holders, the sources said. In December 2025, the US Treasury rejected a rival bid involving US bank Xtellus Partners, insisting that Lukoil must not profit from a sale in either cash or shares, Reuters reported. Other Topics of Interest EU to Hold Security Talks Ahead of Russia Meeting The Commission has not confirmed Zelensky’s participation in the Nov. 4 talks, which will include NATO and the World Bank. The Boehly group was able to move ahead by agreeing to keep the shares in an escrow account rather than hand them directly to Lukoil, two people told the agency. Miami-based investor behind the bid Boehly, a Miami-based investor with stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Lakers, is joined by Emirati firms International Holding Company (IHC) and Al Hail Holding, the Syrian-Qatari Al-Khayat brothers and the US International Development Finance Corp (DFC), a government agency. According to Reuters, more than a dozen suitors, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, competed for the assets. US private equity firm Carlyle, which agreed to buy the portfolio in January, withdrew last month, leaving Boehly’s group in front. Lukoil sanctioned since 2025 Washington sanctioned Lukoil in October 2025 over Russia’s war against Ukraine, making it difficult for the company’s foreign businesses to operate and prompting it to put them up for sale. The portfolio spans Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia and was initially valued at about $22 billion, though Reuters’ sources said its worth has fallen as some operations have shut down. Although Washington has eased some restrictions on Russia in recent weeks, including on Russian diesel imports after US President Donald Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the sanctions on Lukoil itself appear to remain in force. On Oct. 15, the US Treasury allowed Lukoil gas stations outside Russia, including in the US, to keep operating until April 24, 2027. However, the ban was kept on funds being sent to account in Russia. Any sale needs separate approval from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which requires that a deal cut ties with Lukoil deny it any immediate financial gain and keep proceeds owed to the company frozen. OFAC has authorized sale negotiations only until Nov. 21, 2026. According to Reuters, a deal would be a test of whether Western sanctions can push a major Russian company to sell its foreign assets while keeping key oil operations running and limiting the money Moscow gets from the sale. Part of a wider US-Russia thaw The Lukoil sale comes as part of Washington’s broader economic engagement with Moscow, in which Kremlin envoy and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) chief Kirill Dmitriev has become a central figure. On Oct. 9, Trump struck a diesel deal with Putin, which prompted the US Treasury to authorize sales and imports of Russian diesel until April 7, 2027. The move came only three weeks after Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act into law on Sept. 18, appearing to completely disregard the bill intended to target Russia’s energy and defense industries, as well as networks close to Putin. The Kremlin confirmed on Oct. 21 that Russia and the US are discussing the future of Lukoil assets. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov disclosed the talks following Putin’s meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg, saying the two governments were considering a broad range of economic projects. Witkoff publicly confirmed the economic cooperation between the two countries. The US also proposed restoring Russian gas supplies to Europe, including reviving the Nord Stream pipeline system, The Economist reported on Oct. 22. The New York Times reported on Oct. 27 that the Trump administration is considering lifting sanctions on the RDIF, which has remained under US sanctions since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war. Around the same time, Le Monde reported that the Kremlin is courting Trump and his inner circle with economic deals, including those in energy, civil aviation, rare earth metals and artificial intelligence (AI), without first agreeing to a ceasefire.