Russian oil and gas economy began disintegrating due to secondary sanctions

Lukoil’s international empire is collapsing as sweeping U.S. financial restrictions leave the company unable to operate abroad. The sanctions have effectively severed the company from dollar and euro transaction systems, making it impossible to maintain its refineries, retail networks, and upstream partnerships outside Russia. Within days, Lukoil announced it will sell all of its foreign assets, ending three decades of global expansion that once positioned it as Russia’s most internationally integrated private oil major. These assets — from European refineries to fuel station chains in the United States — served as a strategic hard-currency lifeline that supported the company’s domestic production and modernization efforts. Their loss removes a critical financial buffer and forces the firm to rely more heavily on domestic refining and shadow logistics networks, both of which are already under strain. The retreat signals not just the restructuring of a single corporation, but the accelerating decline of Russia’s presence in global energy markets under the cumulative pressure of sanctions.