{"id":11391,"date":"2025-11-14T08:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T00:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11391"},"modified":"2025-11-14T08:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T00:02:07","slug":"lukoils-oil-trading-business-sheds-staff-in-singapore-and-elsewhere-as-us-sanctions-near","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11391","title":{"rendered":"Lukoil\u2019s oil trading business sheds staff in Singapore and elsewhere as US sanctions near"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">LONDON \u2013 The oil trading business of Russia\u2019s Lukoil PJSC began shedding staff all over the world \u2013 with just days to go until sanctions on the Moscow-based energy giant are due to kick in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In Geneva, Dubai and Singapore, staff have received termination offers and are starting to sign agreements, according to people familiar with the matter. Operations are starting to wind down in at least two locations, the people said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The decision to shed staff is one of the most visible effects so far of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/business\/companies-markets\/lukoil-operations-face-fallout-from-trump-sanctions-gunvor-drops-bid?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">US sanctions on Lukoil,<\/p>\n<p><\/a> which were announced last month with a brief window before they enter into force on Nov 21. The company\u2019s international trading arm, Litasco, handled about 1.2 million barrels a day of crude in 2024 \u2013 roughly the same as Turkey consumes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The coming US sanctions will make it challenging for Lukoil\u2019s trading arms to operate in markets that mostly require US dollar transactions, letters of credit from banks and trust between counterparties. Sanctions had already prompted other commodity dealers and bankers to avoid transacting with Litasco.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Employees at Geneva-headquartered Litasco \u2013 which operates in multiple regions including Europe and the United States \u2013 are starting to sign mutually agreed termination contracts, one person said. They didn\u2019t say which roles were being terminated. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Dubai-based Alghaf Marine DMCC \u2013 a successor company to Litasco\u2019s Middle East operation there \u2013 is also terminating roles. Likewise, staff at LMT Energy Asia Pacific, the Asian unit of Litasco, were offered buyouts on Nov 13.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Litasco and Lukoil didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The US sanctions are stressing Lukoil, Russia\u2019s No. 2 producer, globally. The company recently declared force majeure on oil shipments from its giant West Qurna 2 field in Iraq, while in Romania, the country\u2019s president said his country may temporarily take control of the firm\u2019s local assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A deal to buy Lukoil\u2019s international assets was scuppered last week when the US Treasury described would-be buyer Gunvor Group as the Kremlin\u2019s \u201cpuppet,\u201d prompting it to withdraw its offer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Founded in 2000, Litasco established itself in the crude oil, petroleum product, gas and biofuel markets, according to its 2023 sustainability report.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Litasco Group \u2013 consisting of Litasco and various national retail and refining entities, consolidated underneath it \u2013 carries out trading activities worldwide, according to the report. In 2023, Litasco\u2019s assets were located in 14 countries. BLOOMBERG<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"tags-test-id\">\n<p><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Oil and gas sector\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Oil and gas sector<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Russia\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Russia<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for United States\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">United States<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Embargoes and economic sanctions\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Embargoes and economic sanctions<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Singapore\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Singapore<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/business\/companies-markets\/lukoils-oil-trading-business-sheds-staff-in-singapore-and-elsewhere-as-us-sanctions-near\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON \u2013 The oil trading business of Russia\u2019s Lukoil PJSC began shedding staff all over the world \u2013 with just days to go until sanctions&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}