The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday extended a license by more than a month - until February 28 - for companies to talk with Russian energy company Lukoil about buying its foreign assets.
President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft, Russia's two biggest energy companies, on October 22 as part of an effort to pressure Moscow over its war in Ukraine. Lukoil put its assets up for sale shortly after.
The company's global assets - which include oil fields, refineries and a network of retail gas stations - are worth about $22 billion and have drawn interest from a wide variety of entities including U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group and a group comprising oil major Chevron and Quantum Capital Group.
The extension of the general license issued by the U.S. Treasury, which had been due to expire on January 17, also allows interested parties to enter into contingent contracts for the sale of the assets and the wind-down of related work on them. It was the second extension of the deadline, with the first issued in December.
Due to the U.S. sanctions, the Treasury would need to approve any deals struck with Lukoil over its assets.
Lukoil has been hard-hit by the U.S. sanctions, with overseas operations disrupted from Iraq to Finland. The company had asked for an extension of the negotiations deadline so that it has more time to work on deals, sources previously told Reuters.
(Reuters - Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Bhargav Acharya and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Will Dunham)