A Lukoil petrol station in St. Petersburg, Russia, 23 October 2025. Photo: EPA / Anatoly Maltsev
Following last week’s surprise decision by the White House to impose sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Russia’s second biggest oil exporter Lukoil announced that it had accepted an offer from multinational commodities trader Gunvor to buy its foreign assets on Thursday.
The imposition of further US sanctions on Russia’s energy sector in a bid to further reduce revenue streams used by the Kremlin to fund its war machine came amid the Trump administration’s growing frustration at Moscow’s reluctance to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine.
Gunvor was founded in 2000 by Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko and Swedish oil trader Torbjörn Törnqvist, and is the world’s fourth largest crude oil trader. Once a major player in the export of Russian oil, at its height Gunvor handled up to 40% of the country’s seaborne oil exports and was dubbed the king of Kremlin oil.
A close ally of Vladimir Putin, Timchenko, who was himself sanctioned by the US government following Russia’s illegal 2014 annexation of Crimea, officially ended his involvement with the company by selling his stake to Törnqvist just prior to being sanctioned. However, he is believed to have retained control of the company from behind the scenes.
Gunvor maintains that it stepped back from the bulk of direct business and ties with Russia following the invasion of Crimea, and publicly condemned the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Lukoil deal will give Gunvor control over most of Lukoil’s operations outside Russia, which includes businesses in countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands and the US that employ over 15,000 people, according to the Financial Times.
Few details of the sale have been disclosed, including the price Gunvor paid for the assets. In a statement, Lukoil said that it had “undertaken not to negotiate with other potential buyers” and that the deal was “subject to conditions”, with the sale being “due to restrictive measures of some states introduced against the company and its subsidiaries”.
Washington’s sanctions are due to come into effect on 21 November, although according to Reuters, both Lukoil and Gunvor plan to apply to the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for an extension that would allow uninterrupted trade until the sale is complete.
