commoditiesboltSpecial Coverage

OFAC Reopens the Lukoil Sale Window for an Eleventh Time, and the Legal Fine Print Hasn't Moved Since November

Alex NavarroSenior Investigative Correspondent

Published September 19, 20269 min read

Industrial pipeline valve wheel bound shut by a heavy chain and padlock at dusk — A valve locked mid-turn: Washington keeps extending permission to talk about a Lukoil sale, never to open it. Illustration: MarketIntelLabs

A new expiration date, the same conditions, and no closer to an actual transaction The Finding On September 18, 2026, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 131J, extending to an October 22 expiry date the narrow authorization that lets American companies negotiate a sale of Lukoil International GmbH, the Swiss-registered international arm of sanctioned Russian oil major Lukoil. The license is the eleventh document in a chain that began in November 2025, and it changes nothing about what buyers are actually allowed to do. Every version of this license, from the original GL 131 through 131I, has permitted talk and paperwork, not a closing. GL 131J is…

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