Ukraine Peace Talks Reportedly Expand to Multibillion-Dollar Bid for Lukoil's Foreign Assets

Talks between Washington and Moscow over ending the war in Ukraine have widened to include a proposed multibillion-dollar deal for Lukoil's international oil assets, with a bidding group that includes investor Todd Boehly, Middle Eastern parties and an arm of the US government, The New York Times reported on October 3. The deal is not final and is contingent on approval from the US Treasury Department, which oversees sanctions enforcement, and from the Kremlin, according to the newspaper's account, cited by Reuters and the Times of India.

What the NYT Reported

The proposed transaction covers a sprawling set of oil fields, refineries and gas stations that Lukoil owns around the world. The NYT, citing eight people familiar with the negotiations, reported that a group led by Boehly has emerged as the leading bidder, alongside two Middle Eastern groups that have done business with Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff's family, and an arm of the US government itself. The named Middle Eastern participants are Qatar-based businessmen Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat and an Abu Dhabi investment fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, according to the Times of India's write-up of the report.

A senior US administration official told the NYT that Witkoff and Kushner had directly negotiated the financial terms of the proposed US government investment, including what the official described as "a substantial upfront payment and profits interest for the United States." The newspaper's account said there is no indication that Witkoff or Kushner would personally profit from the proposed transaction, while noting the questions it raises about overlap between the administration's Russia diplomacy and the business interests of people connected to President Donald Trump and his allies. Citing people familiar with the meeting, the NYT reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the deal with Witkoff and Kushner at a September 5 Kremlin meeting, presenting it as a way to demonstrate that Russian and US businesses could resume working together. US officials, according to the report, viewed the proposal as a possible means of building goodwill with Moscow while potentially helping lower global energy prices.

On scale, the price and structure of the proposed transaction have not been disclosed; Lukoil valued its international assets at about $20 billion earlier this year, according to the Times of India's summary of the report, while Reuters has separately described the forced-sale portfolio as worth about $22 billion. The package is held through Austria-based Lukoil International, which oversees more than 100 subsidiaries across almost 50 countries, spanning oil fields, refineries and filling stations from Iraq to Finland. The requirement to sell stems from the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designating Lukoil and Rosneft on October 22, 2025 under Executive Order 14024, which blocked their property in the United States along with that of entities they own 50 percent or more. OFAC licences have allowed negotiations and wind-down activity but do not authorise completing a transaction, which needs separate approval, and do not lift sanctions or permit fund transfers to Russia.

The process has already produced false starts. An earlier attempted sale to Swiss trader Gunvor was scrapped after the US Treasury called the firm the Kremlin's "puppet." Lukoil later signed an agreement with US private equity firm Carlyle for Lukoil International GmbH and reached a tentative deal in January for a large portion of the assets, but US approval stalled, according to the Times of India's account, before the Boehly-led group emerged as leading bidder. Reuters reported in February, citing four sources, that Washington had deliberately slowed the sale to pressure Russia in the peace talks, with decisions escalated beyond OFAC to senior White House, Treasury and State Department officials; a US official said the deadline was extended to "facilitate ongoing negotiations with Lukoil." The White House, the Treasury Department and Lukoil did not respond to requests for comment on the reported deal, according to Reuters; the Kremlin's response was not reported.

Bottom line: the reporting describes a proposal, not a completed transaction. Any sale still requires separate OFAC sign-off and Kremlin assent, and Reuters has reported, citing a source, that a sale could conclude independently of a peace agreement even as talks in Geneva, Abu Dhabi and Miami produced no breakthrough. Interpretation, tied to the evidence above: because US approval could release the assets from American sanctions and thereby increase their value, the regulatory decision — rather than the bidding — is the variable that determines whether the deal happens at all.