ASTANA, November 17. /TASS/. Kazakhstan's national company KazMunayGas is in talks with Lukoil regarding the company's assets in the republic, Chairman of the Board of the Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund, which is the main shareholder of KazMunayGas, Nurlan Zhakupov said.

"I can't talk about any specific agreements right now because consultants from both Lukoil and KazMunayGas are working, as Lukoil is a partner of KazMunayGas on many projects and therefore there is a necessity for this," he told reporters.

"There is a deadline that will be announced by the American authorities," Zhakupov said, adding that "a decision on the issue will need to be made by the end of November." "There is still time, the issue is very complex, very multifaceted, there will be no simple solutions here," he noted.

In October, the US and UK added Lukoil to their sanctions lists. After that, Lukoil announced that it intended to sell its international assets and that it had received an offer from the international oil trader Gunvor to acquire Lukoil International GmbH, which owns the Russian company’s foreign holdings. Gunvor then said it was withdrawing its offer to purchase Lukoil's foreign assets following a statement from the US Department of the Treasury that it would not grant Gunvor a license to conduct business or earn profit until the conflict in Ukraine was resolved.

Lukoil is implementing many international projects: the company owns two refineries in Europe (in Romania and Bulgaria), as well as a stake in one in the Netherlands. As of the end of 2024, Lukoil also operated a vast network of gas stations in 20 countries, 2,456 of which were located abroad (including in the US and Europe). In addition, the company operates in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, the UAE, Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, the Republic of Congo, and Mexico. The company also runs 320 gas stations throughout Romania.