Billionaire close to Trump family emerges as prospective buyer of Lukoil assets

A Financial Times report this week said billionaire Todd Boehly has secured U.S. government support plus backing from Gulf investors with ties to the Trump family for a bid on Lukoil’s international assets.

Boehly is a U.S. billionaire investor, co-founder of Eldridge Industries, and co-owner of Chelsea FC and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Until now, Carlyle Group had been the expected buyer. In January 2026 Lukoil announced a non-exclusive, conditional agreement to sell most of its overseas portfolio – excluding Kazakhstan holdings – to the U.S. private-equity firm. Analysts valued the package at about $22 billion; it includes oil and gas fields, refineries in Bulgaria and Romania, and thousands of filling stations across Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. The deal still required OFAC approval and was never exclusive.

Boehly’s renewed effort, reportedly involving a consortium that includes Xtellus and UAE-based Allied Investment Partners, arrives after an earlier cashless-swap proposal from the same circle was rejected by the Treasury in late 2025. Any transaction continues to need U.S. regulatory clearance as well as Russian government consent. The latest political and Gulf backing therefore reopens a contest that many had assumed Carlyle had already won.

Background of sanctions and the push for divestment

The sanctions imposed in late 2025 targeted Lukoil’s international footprint, which has long been one of the most diversified among Russian energy firms. The portfolio includes stakes in oil fields across countries such as Iraq, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Nigeria, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates, along with refineries, and a vast network of petrol stations exceeding several thousand locations in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. These assets have provided Lukoil with significant revenue diversification beyond Russia’s borders.

The sanctions created immediate operational disruptions. Without access to Western financial systems, Lukoil struggled to maintain contracts, secure financing, and ensure smooth logistics. In Iraq, for instance, the government nationalized the company’s major West Qurna 2 field due to compliance issues. Facing a tight deadline initially set for late 2025 but extended through negotiations, Lukoil began exploring buyers in earnest from November 2025 onward.

Previous attempts to sell the assets faltered under U.S. scrutiny. A $22 billion bid from Swiss commodities trader Gunvor was blocked by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which labelled Gunvor a “Kremlin puppet” due to historical ties to sanctioned individuals, despite the firm’s denials and distancing from Russian interests. Another proposed arrangement involving Xtellus Partners, formerly linked to Russian bank VTB, was also rejected. These rejections highlighted the stringent oversight applied to any transaction involving sanctioned Russian entities, where secondary sanctions could penalize buyers by cutting off access to U.S. financial infrastructure.

Other interested parties, including U.S. major Chevron in partnership with Quantum Capital Group, and investors from the United Arab Emirates, have been in discussions. Kazakhstan, meanwhile, exercised preemption rights to acquire Lukoil’s local stakes in major projects like the Tengiz and Karachaganak fields and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, notifying OFAC of its intent to retain these strategically important assets under national control.

Lukoil strikes deal to sell international assets to Carlyle Group amid U.S. sanctions

This article draws on reporting by the FT

Caption: Chelsea FC co-owner Todd Boehly attends the English Premier League match Chelsea FC against Brighton & Hove Albion, in London, Britain, 30 August 2026. EPA/DANIEL HAMBURY