Last fall, Lukoil announced that its international assets were for sale after U.S. sanctions against the company made it difficult to operate. The assets are estimated to be worth around $22 billion.
Last fall, the Swedish-linked company Gunvor withdrew its bid for the assets after the U.S. Treasury Department wrote on social media that it would never approve a license for Gunvor, saying it viewed the company as "the Kremlin's puppet."
