The deal under discussion covers Lukoil's oil fields, refineries and network of filling stations outside Russia — from deposits in Cameroon and refineries in Europe to gas stations in New Jersey, the newspaper reported, citing eight people familiar with the matter.
Earlier this year Lukoil valued its foreign assets at roughly $20 billion. The price and structure of the transaction are unknown. Completing it would require approval from both the US authorities and the Kremlin; Washington's consent would lift the assets out of American sanctions and raise their value.
According to NYT, Putin personally raised the deal on September 5 at a Kremlin meeting with Witkoff and Kushner. The Russian president proposed seeing it through in order to show elites that doing business with the United States is possible. The American negotiators, the paper writes, saw the deal as a way to improve relations with the Kremlin and lower global energy prices.
The leading contender for the assets is a group headed by American billionaire Todd Boehly. He donated $1 million to the Trump-supporting MAGA Inc. committee in December 2025, and his Eldridge Industries gave another $1 million for the US presidential inauguration.
The consortium also includes Qatari businessmen Mutaz and Ramez al-Khayyat, partners of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in a luxury resort project in Albania. Another potential investor is a fund from Abu Dhabi controlled by the UAE national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. A structure linked to Tahnoon previously acquired a stake in the Trump family's cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial, which Witkoff co-founded; the company involves Trump's sons and Witkoff's son. Another Tahnoon fund, Lunate, is one of the largest investors in the private investment firm Kushner set up after Trump's first term.
The US government also intends to take part in the deal, through the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). NYT stresses that there are no signs of personal financial gain for Kushner or Witkoff from the sale. Former US Justice Department prosecutor and ethics specialist Hui Chen called the tangle of ties alarming and raised the question of whether personal interests are influencing the choice of buyer.
Lukoil announced its intention to sell its foreign assets after US sanctions were imposed in October 2025. In January the American fund Carlyle reached a preliminary agreement to buy them, but final approval dragged on. In that time Boehly's group moved ahead — the Financial Times reported in September that it includes the DFC, Sheikh Tahnoon and the al-Khayyat family. Putin's special representative Kirill Dmitriev is involved in the talks; he has previously said that dialogue with the United States continues in many areas, including energy.
The White House, the US Treasury Department and Lukoil did not respond to NYT requests for comment.