US extends Lukoil service station sanctions waiver into April 2027
The Treasury extension allows Lukoil-branded stations outside Russia to keep serving customers, but restricts transfers of funds to Russia. Reports differ by one day on the expiry date.
The US Treasury extended a sanctions waiver on Thursday, 15 October, allowing Lukoil service stations outside Russia, including in the United States, to keep serving customers into April 2027. The extension replaces a licence that was due to expire later this month, giving the stations more time to operate under the restrictions, according to Euronews and The National.
What the Lukoil station waiver permits
The permission covers the continued operation of Lukoil-branded service stations outside Russia. Euronews gives 24 April 2027 as its end date; The National gives 25 April 2027. The reports do not resolve that one-day difference, so the precise expiry date remains unclear. Both describe the change as an extension of an existing licence, rather than the removal of sanctions on Lukoil.
The extended permission has limits. Both outlets report that it continues to prohibit transfers of funds to a person or account in Russia. The National also says transactions involving Russia’s central bank, national wealth fund or Ministry of Finance are excluded. Those restrictions matter to anyone handling payments connected with the permitted station operations: permission to serve customers does not itself authorize the prohibited transfers.
Separate licence for Lukoil’s Bulgarian entities
The Treasury also issued a separate licence covering certain transactions involving Lukoil’s Bulgarian entities, both outlets reported. Euronews says that permission runs through 24 April 2027. The National describes it as lasting for the same period as the service station licence, for which it gives a 25 April end date. The date discrepancy therefore also affects how the two accounts describe the Bulgarian licence’s duration.
Diesel agreement and oil-market pressure
The decision came a week after President Donald Trump said he had reached a diesel supply agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to both reports. The National attributed to Trump a proposed release of 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, 500,000 tonnes in November and one million tonnes thereafter. It also reported his conditional statement about a further three million tonnes. Those figures describe the proposal Trump announced, rather than volumes covered by the Lukoil station licence.
Euronews reported criticism of the announced diesel agreement from EU foreign ministers. The National described tensions with US partners, including Ukraine, and within Trump’s Republican Party. Separately, The National reported that the International Energy Agency’s governing board said Thursday it would accelerate the release of more than 20 million barrels of diesel and remaining volumes from a previously agreed 400-million-barrel emergency stock release. It said the agency expected oil-market balances to remain in deficit well into 2027 and warned of further turmoil if Middle East conflicts remained unresolved.
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Sources and context
- US extends sanctions waiver for Russian oil giant LukoilEuronews (by Greta Ruffino; no agency credit shown in retrieved text)
- US extends sanctions waiver on Russia's Lukoil until 2027The National (no byline or agency credit shown in retrieved text)
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.