Rompetrol’s Kazakh owners want to buy Lukoil’s oil fields in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has submitted a formal offer to the US authorities to acquire Russian oil producer Lukoil’s stakes in energy projects in Kazakhstan, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Lukoil was added to the US sanctions list in October 2025 in response to the slow progress of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The move forced the Russian oil giant to sell its assets abroad.

Lukoil Group holds stakes in the Karachaganak and Tengiz oil fields in Kazakhstan, as well as the CPC pipeline, which carries most of Kazakhstan’s oil to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, from where it is exported.

Yerlan Akkenzhenov said the Kazakh government had sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which must approve potential deals under U.S. sanctions.

Kazakhstan stressed that it has a preemptive right to acquire Lukoil’s assets. “The Energy Ministry has sent the corresponding request in a letter to OFAC,” the energy minister said. Under U.S. sanctions, Lukoil has until February 28, 2026, to sell its foreign assets. Lukoil has a network of more than 5,300 gas stations in 20 countries around the world, as well as refineries in Europe. Their combined output last year reached 13.5 million tons, or about 270,000 barrels per day, according to its annual report.

In Romania, Lukoil owns the Petrotel refinery and sells fuel through a network of 300 distribution stations.

On the other hand, Kazakhstan’s national oil company, KazMunayGas, which is a partner with Lukoil and Western companies in the oil fields of Kazakhstan, operates the largest refinery in Romania, Petromidia, fueled by Kazakh crude, and a distribution network in the Black Sea region, in Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Georgia.