Swiss company backs out of Russia's Lukoil deal after US sanctions
Photo: Gunvor has declined to purchase the international assets of Russia's Lukoil (Getty Images)
Swiss oil trader Gunvor has abandoned plans to buy international assets from Russian company Lukoil following statements from the US and threats of sanctions, according to Gunvor Group and the US Treasury Department.
The decision was made after the US Treasury Department called Gunvor a puppet of the Kremlin and made it clear that the deal would not be approved.
"President Trump has been clear that the war must end immediately. As long as Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlin’s puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operate and profit," the US agency says in a statement.
In response, Gunvor called the allegations fundamentally false but confirmed the withdrawal of the proposal.
A few days earlier, Bloomberg reported that the US was investigating Gunvor for ties to Russia's Vladimir Putin.
The planned assets included oil refineries in Europe, shares in oil fields in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, and Mexico, as well as hundreds of retail gas stations around the world.
US sanctions
Earlier, the US tightened sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, restricting the activities of two Russian oil giants, Rosneft and Lukoil.
The sanctions will take effect on November 20, but are already having a significant impact on the Russian economy. In particular, oil refineries in India have announced plans to reduce purchases of Russian oil.
At the same time, there have been recent reports that Lukoil may sell its foreign assets to the Swiss company Gunvor.
For more details on the impact of the new US sanctions on Russia, see the article by RBC-Ukraine.
