Trump administration imposes hefty sanctions on major Russian oil companies

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced further sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.

The Treasury Department said in a statement it was announcing the sanctions because of "Russia's lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine."

The statement said blacklisting the companies would hamper Russia's ability to raise revenue for its war machine, adding that the US was prepared "to take further action if necessary" to push for an end to the war.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News prior to the official announcement that it was set to be "one of the largest sanctions that we have done against the Russian Federation." 

"President Putin has not come to the table in an honest and forthright manner, as we'd hoped," Bessent said, adding that US President Donald Trump was "disappointed at where we are in these talks."

The US announced sanctions a day after a potential meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary fell through. 

What are the US sanctions imposed on Russia's Rosneft, Lukoil oil giants?

The US has imposed further sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia's two largest oil and gas giants, along with dozens of the companies' subsidiaries. 

Both are among the top ten companies listed on the Moscow stock exchange and are involved in exploration, production, refining and sale of oil and gas in Russia and internationally. 

The US sanctions see the freezing of "all property and interests" of the designated companies or persons in the US, and US persons or entities won't be allowed to do business with them.

Together, Rosneft and Lukoil export 3.1 million barrels of oil per day, according to the UK government, which imposed fresh sanctions on Russia last week. 

Rosneft is responsible for 6% of global and nearly half of all Russian oil production.