MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. The interests of the Russian company must be protected and respected, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the deal between Lukoil and the US company Carlyle.
"We consider sanctions illegal and unacceptable, that's the basis of our position. Secondly, these are corporate agreements, and in this case we cannot comment on them. For us, the most important thing is that the interests of the Russian company are protected and respected," he said at a briefing.
Russia’s oil producer Lukoil reported earlier that it had reached an agreement with Carlyle to sell Lukoil International GmbH, which owns its foreign assets. The deal does not include projects in Kazakhstan and is conditional upon a number of approvals, including from US authorities. The agreement is not exclusive as Lukoil continues negotiations with other potential buyers, the company noted. It also recalled that the sale of Lukoil International is related to the introduction of restrictive measures by certain states against Lukoil and its subsidiaries.
In October, the US and UK put Lukoil on sanctions lists, after which the company announced its intention to sell its international assets and cited Gunvor's offer to purchase Lukoil International GmbH. Gunvor later withdrew the offer after the US Treasury Department announced that a license for such a deal would not be issued until the conflict in Ukraine ended. The media reported on a wide range of companies interested in Lukoil's assets.