Lukoil has agreed to sell its foreign assets to an American investment company

Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Business FM on the proposed sale of LUKOIL's foreign assets to the Carlyle investment fund:

"Carlyle is one of the largest investment funds in the world, in the USA. I think that there will be no problems with the approval of the deal by the US Treasury Department, since this is a completely American company. All the interests of the Trump administration will be respected. Carlyle definitely won't be involved in developing its own oil and gas business. He needs these assets for resale. Maybe he'll keep something for himself, although it's unlikely. Most likely, this is an interim deal, that is, he buys out all the assets, and then, with a profit for himself, he will sell them to profile players, the same American Chevron, and other companies that have expressed interest in various assets. This is probably not the worst option for Lukoil, since the purchase of a single package of all assets will mean a higher sale price than if the assets were sold off in parts. On the other hand, this business will be fragmented, most likely, among many companies, which in this case does not imply any unity of assets. This is a resale that Lukoil cannot deal with now because of the sanctions, which Carlyle can freely carry out."