U.S. Blocks Gunvor Deal to Acquire LUKOIL’s International Assets

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — The Swiss trading company Gunvor has withdrawn its bid to acquire the international assets of Russia’s largest private oil company after the United States stated that it would never approve the deal.

“President Trump has made it clear that the war must end immediately,” the U.S. Treasury Department said on social media platform X. “As long as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues senseless killings, the Kremlin’s puppet Gunvor will never receive a license to operate or profit.”

In response, Gunvor representative Seth Pietras called the U.S. Treasury’s statement “fundamentally incorrect and false” and confirmed that the company is withdrawing its offer for LUKOIL’s international assets.

Previously, LUKOIL had announced its acceptance of an offer from the multinational trading company to purchase its international business following sanctions imposed by Trump. The deal required approval from the U.S. Treasury before LUKOIL would be blacklisted on 21 November. The company’s European assets include two refineries in Bulgaria and Romania, a 45-percent stake in a Dutch fuel processing facility, and around two thousand gas stations.

Gunvor was founded in 2000 by Swedish billionaire Torbjörn Törnqvist and Gennady Timchenko, a close ally of Putin, and for many years remained the largest exporter of Moscow oil to global markets. In 2014, just days before U.S. sanctions were imposed on Timchenko following the annexation of Crimea, he sold his 43.6-percent stake in the company. Since then, Gunvor has distanced itself from Russia.

“Gunvor has always been transparent about its ownership and business, has distanced itself from Russian trade for over a decade, sold Russian assets, and publicly condemned the war in Ukraine,” Pietras emphasized. “We hope to have the opportunity to correct this obvious misunderstanding.”