Lukoil Neftohim Burgas, the refinery in Bulgaria, is part of a roughly $20bn deal for the international assets of the Russian company, now under discussion as the Trump administration negotiates with the Kremlin to end the war Russia launched against Ukraine in February 2022, according to eight people familiar with the talks.

The talks have gone on for several months.

The deal covers the entire global portfolio of Lukoil, one of Russia's biggest energy firms — oilfields in Cameroon, refineries across Europe, petrol stations in New Jersey. Its refineries in Bulgaria, Romania and the Netherlands have become more sought-after because of a worldwide shortage of diesel and jet fuel.

The Bulgarian companies are not involved in the talks to sell the parent firm and have received no official information about them, said Evgeni Simeonov, the special commercial manager overseeing the assets in Bulgaria.

Potential buyers include Middle Eastern businessmen linked to Trump's two lead negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. One consortium is leading the race. It includes American investor Todd Boehly, two Middle Eastern groups that have done past deals with Kushner or the Witkoff family, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, a U.S. government agency.

Boehly has donated $2m to Trump's political campaigns and causes. One of the investors in the deal is also a co-owner of Trump's crypto venture World Liberty Financial, which Witkoff co-founded. There is no evidence that Kushner or Witkoff stand to personally profit from the deal.

Vladimir Putin raised the matter with Witkoff and Kushner at the Kremlin on September 5, and the Americans said they would work on the deal, according to three people familiar with the meeting. One source familiar with the talks said Putin proposed the deal to show Russians they can do business with the U.S. In Moscow, the decision is seen as Putin's own, even though Lukoil is officially a private company.

The same source said the American side sees the deal as a chance for better relations with the Kremlin and lower energy prices worldwide. Since early last year, Trump has talked about business deals with Russia and called the country a "huge opportunity".

U.S. approval of the sale would lift sanctions on the assets and immediately boost their value.

In October 2025, Trump imposed new sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, targeting the two big oil firms Rosneft and Lukoil among others. Since then, the U.S. has extended the deadline for selling the sanctioned company's assets several times. Under the extension granted in August, buyers had until September 19.

The U.S. Treasury has extended the window for talks to October 22, while the special license covering the Bulgarian companies runs until October 29.

To close the deal, both the U.S. government and the Kremlin must approve it, and the sale also needs separate clearance from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.