Lukoil is selling off its sanctioned Western assets amid scandal.

The "deal of the century" involving Lukoil's sale of all its foreign assets to the Swiss oil trader Gunvor is unfolding in the form of an international scandal.

This was stated by Sergei Vakulenko, an expert at the Berlin Carnegie Center (an organization considered undesirable in the Russian Federation), in an interview with Margarita Lyutova, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.

The deal, valued at $12-14 billion, was concluded five days after the US imposed sanctions on Lukoil. There were no other bidders for the Russian assets.

This led oil and gas conspiracy theorists to suspect that the agreement was prepared in advance as an escape route. After all, Gunvor is no random company. It was founded in 1997 by Torbjörn Törnqvist and Gennady Timchenko, a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2014, the Russian billionaire sold his stake in the same manner—just days before Western sanctions were imposed against him.

"There are rumors that this deal will have a buyback option. Similar to what Western automakers have had when they sold their Russian businesses for euros. A separate question is how the deal will be paid for," noted Sergey Vakulenko.

Tornqvist has already publicly ruled out the scenario in which any of Lukoil's assets would be sold back if sanctions against it were lifted.

"It will be a complete break once the deal is concluded – and that's it," the Swiss businessman told the American Bloomberg.

Vakulenko considers it strange that Gunvor announced its intention to seek permission from the British and American authorities.

"If they go for permission, they'll be told: yes, but you have to pay into a blocked account. The sanctions stipulate that Lukoil is allowed to operate in North America, provided the funds are deposited into a blocked account. The question is: what's Lukoil's interest in this? Because it's clear that Lukoil will never receive any money from this blocked account. Everyone understands that any blocked funds from Russia will go toward reparations to Ukraine," the expert is perplexed.

He suggests that the real payments are hidden.

"A lot of work is clearly underway right now to find a way to buy oil from Lukoil and Rosneft without it being too obvious and demonstrative. There was a precedent. General exercises took place eight months ago with Surgutneftegaz and Gazpromneft," Vakulenko said.

Regulators in the US, UK, and Switzerland intend to investigate whether Putin is connected to the buyer of Lukoil's international assets. For his part, Törnqvist stated that permits must be issued urgently to avoid disruptions to fuel supplies.

By the beginning of this year, LUKOIL owned 2456 petrol station networks in 20 countries, refineries in Romania and Bulgaria, 45% of the Zeeland refinery in the Netherlands, and stakes in projects in Iraq, the UAE, Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan.

The fate of the Kazakh assets remains unclear. Lukoil holds stakes in the Tengiz (5%) and Karachaganak (13,5%) projects, which are primarily owned by Western companies, as well as TCO and CPC.

"My 'conspiracy theory' is that sanctions pressure will lower prices and force the sale of attractive stakes in Tengiz and Karachaganak to American and European companies. Perhaps even in CPC, since the company consistently pays high dividends," oil and gas analyst Olzhas Baidildinov wrote on his TGC page.

Bulgaria is also unhappy with the "deal of the century." Today, President Rumen Radev vetoed a bill on the terms of the sale of LUKOIL Neftochim Burgas, the largest refinery in the Balkans, which meets 80% of the country's needs. The Russian investor transformed this aging facility into a modern petrochemical concern. Bulgarian parliament members voted to temporarily ban the export of petroleum products to EU countries.

Protests were even heard from small Moldova, whose Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu stated that the local airport depends on kerosene supplies from Lukoil.

Guzel Enerji, a major Turkish diesel fuel supplier, has informed its customers of a price increase due to sanctions against Lukoil and Rosneft.

Meanwhile, Gunvor buyers are threatening Europe with job losses and fuel supply disruptions if the company's deal with Lukoil is blocked.