The bank acting for the consortium has already bought Lukoil securities from about ten American and British investment funds, as well as from US depositary banks that held them on behalf of retail investors. Two Reuters sources said the shares were purchased at roughly 30 cents per dollar of value, a 70% discount.
The deal involves no cash payments: the bought-back securities would be exchanged for foreign oilfields, refineries and filling station networks. The shares would not go to Lukoil itself but would be placed in an escrow account with blocked access, the agency's sources said.
That condition, they said, is what allowed Boehly's consortium to advance in the talks. In December 2025 the US Treasury Department rejected a similar proposal from an investor group that included the American bank Xtellus Partners, saying the sale should not bring the Russian company significant benefit, either in money or in shares.
Lukoil's foreign portfolio was initially valued at $22 billion but may have fallen in value since, because some enterprises have ceased operations. According to The Moscow Times, it includes about 3 billion barrels of proven and probable oil and gas reserves, stakes in fields with average daily output of about 250,000 barrels, refineries in Bulgaria and Romania, a 45% stake in a Dutch refinery and filling station networks in Europe and the US.
Besides Boehly, the consortium includes investors from the UAE, International Holding Company and Al Hail Holding, as well as Qatari billionaires of Syrian origin Ramez and Mutaz al-Khayat. Another participant is the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which, according to the Financial Times, will receive about 15% and will not put in money at the start. Boehly's stake will be even smaller, but together with the DFC he will get a majority on the board of directors.
The New York Times's sources said the presence of Middle Eastern participants is important to the Kremlin: Putin could reject the deal if he considers it too beneficial to the US, while Qatar and the UAE are regarded in Moscow as friendly countries. Middle Eastern investors will together receive more than half of the consortium, the sources said.
The New York Times also reported that the sale of Lukoil's assets is being discussed during US-Russia talks on the war in Ukraine. According to the newspaper, Putin personally raised the issue at a meeting with Trump's special envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner on September 5.
The sale began after the imposition of US sanctions against Lukoil in October 2025. In January the American investment fund Carlyle reached an agreement with the company but never received approval from the US authorities and has now stopped actively pursuing the assets.