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On October 15, 2025, the UK announced a significant expansion of its Russia-related sanctions regime, designating Lukoil and Rosneft—Russia's two largest oil companies—as asset freeze targets.
This is the first time Lukoil and Rosneft have been subjected to full asset freezing sanctions by any of the UK, U.S., or EU, and follows earlier UK measures against Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas in January 2025, Russia's third and fourth largest oil companies. By targeting the parent companies, the UK sanctions will also extend to any companies that Lukoil or Rosneft majority own or otherwise control.
The new package also notably sanctions:
- Nayara Energy Limited (an Indian refinery, 49% owned by Rosneft). This follows the EU's sanctions on Nayara in July. In contrast to the EU's action against Nayara, the UK issued a wind-down license for Nayara and the Chinese energy companies mentioned below), which expires on November 13, 2025;
- an UAE commodity trading house (Wissol Commodities), several Chinese oil refineries and the Beihai LNG terminal (which had been importing LNG from the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project);
- an additional five Russian banks; and
- companies that have been supplying electronics critical for Russian drones and missiles, including companies based in Thailand, Singapore, Turkey and China.
The UK has continued its focus on vessels by specifying an additional 51 ships, including 44 identified as part of the "shadow fleet" used to transport Russian oil. These vessels are now prohibited from accessing UK ports and have any UK registration revoked.
In parallel, the UK issued a wind-down licence for transactions involving Rosneft, Lukoil and their subsidiaries (which expires on November 28, 2025) and amended two existing licences to allow transactions with Lukoil and Rosneft to continue in relation to 6 specified oil projects and to allow petrol station payments in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The UK has also announced that it will introduce a ban on the import of oil products refined in third countries from Russian-origin crude, aiming to address indirect flows of Russian oil into global markets. This will require amending regulations to be passed and follows the EU's similar announced prohibition which comes into effect on 21 January 2026. Overall, these developments represent a notable escalation in UK sanctions on Russia and its oil revenues, especially by sanctioning Lukoil and Rosneft, energy companies that remain integrated into global markets and with operations and activity today in countries allied with the UK. It remains to be seen whether the EU will follow suit and target Lukoil and Rosneft as part of its 19th sanctions package, which is due imminently and similarly expected to focus on placing continuing pressure on Russian energy.
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