The biggest privately-owned Russian oil company, Lukoil has announced it will be selling its foreign assets to the company Gunvor after it was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department. Gunvor Group Ltd is a company with strong ties to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
You can read more about Gunvor here.
According to Bloomberg, President Trump is not enforcing his new sanctions on Russia and didn’t discuss them in his meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping in South Korea. Some Chinese companies have voluntarily divested from Russian oil to avoid secondary sanctions. However, flying back on Air Force One, President Trump did say that he spoke to Xi Jinping about Ukraine.
The meeting with Xi Jinping ended with mixed results as China suspended its mineral exports restrictions, resumed US soy-bean imports, and the US lowered tariffs from 57% to 47%. However no deal has been conjured and President Trump is expected to visit China next April.
Lukoil owns various assets in Europe, including a refinery in Schwedt, Germany, which has been confisicated by the State and has stakes in refineries in the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Romania.
Trading in Russian oil in Europe is continuing.
Lukoil also registered a company in Malta a month before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The company is now in dissolution.
Newsroom
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