New York-based investment bank Xtellus Partners has proposed that proceeds from the sale of Lukoil’s foreign assets be used to compensate American investors who lost money after their Lukoil stock holdings were frozen following Russia’s war in Ukraine. Leading U.S. asset managers such as Goldman Sachs, Blackrock and JP Morgan lost billions of dollars through writing off their Lukoil stocks holdings following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Xtellus has proposed a cashless sale back to Lukoil securities held by U.S. investors in exchange for the company’s global assets. Lukoil’s international assets are estimated at $22 billion, including upstream oil and gas projects, refining facilities and more than 2,000 filling stations ?across the globe. Buyers of the assets would have to come to an agreement with Lukoil before the U.S. Treasury can clear the transaction.
Last month, U.S. Treasury issued the greenlight for companies to begin talks with Lukoil for its foreign assets, with U.S. oil and gas giants Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) have already expressed interest. Exxon is in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry to buy Lukoil’s 75% stake in the West Qurna 2 oilfield, one of the country’s largest.
Iraq’s oil ministry has invited several U.S. oil companies to enter negotiations over the West Qurna 2 takeover through a competitive bidding process. West Qurna-2 oilfield produces more than 400,000 bpd of crude. The Iraqi government has taken over operations at West Qurna 2, including paying staff salaries directly.
Meanwhile, the Serbian government is preparing an amendment to the country’s budget law that will allow it to nationalize the Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) refinery, majority owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, if no third party offers quickly emerge. NIS has submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to continue operations until negotiations for an ownership change conclude.
Located in the city of Pancevo, near Belgrade, NIS is the only oil refinery in Serbia. The refinery has the capacity to process 4.8 million tons of crude per year. In the first half of 2025, the refinery processed approximately 1.677 million tons, a 20% increase compared to the same period in 2024, when a major maintenance turnaround was carried out.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
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