US suspends some sanctions on Russian oil giant Lukoil

The US Treasury Department on Thursday extended authorization for Lukoil-branded fuel stations outside Russia to continue operating, suspending some sanctions on the Russian energy giant.

The move effectively allows Lukoil-branded stations in countries like the United States to continue serving customers while still preventing money from flowing back to Russia, which has been under sweeping US and EU sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Treasury said it extended the authorization to “mitigate harm to consumers and suppliers seeking to engage in ordinary transactions” with retail service stations that involve the Lukoil entities.

 Belgrade is not receiving oil from abroad amid US sanctions against NIS company but the economic situation remains stable, Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said at the meeting with representations of country’s oil companies.

"Serbia is not receiving a single drop of oil for almost two months but citizens and enterprises have not yet experienced that. We do and will continue doing everything to continue this way until the situation with NIS is settled and the refinery in Pancevo resumes operations. The situation is monitored daily and is changing every hour," the minister said, cited by the government’s press service.

The ministry "continues taking all the appropriate measures to provide for seamless supplies to the domestic market," Djedovic Handanovic said. The authority is working on the mechanism of creating compulsory reserves of petroleum products, she added.

In January 2025, the US Treasury sanctioned Serbia’s NIS company.