Russian energy giant Lukoil PJSC dissolved the supervisory board of its international business, in the latest sign of how U.S. sanctions-the first of which begin on Friday-are affecting the firm.
As part of the dissolution, the Moscow-based firm "recalled" Sergei Kochkurov, chief executive officer of the parent company, as well as Evgeny Khavkin and Gennady Fedotov. The step, taken during an Oct. 28 board meeting, was posted by Lukoil International GmbH on Austria's corporate register on Friday.
The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced Oct. 22 that it was sanctioning Lukoil along with fellow Russian giant Rosneft PJSC. The measures come into force today although some actions against Lukoil assets have been delayed until Dec. 13.
The move has stressed the firm globally: Russian oil prices plunged and its international trading business Litasco has shed staff and wound up at least some operations. Baghdad has frozen Lukoil's share of revenue from the West Qurna 2 oil field in Iraq while western suitors circle the firm's global assets.
The decision to dissolve the board and recall Lukoil International's overseers will leave the company's managing director Alexander Matytsyn in charge. The company is still fully owned by Lukoil.
The Vienna-based unit also published its fully audited group report for 2022 on Wednesday, about two years later than usual. It was the first detailed look at how the company fared in the first year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
According to those accounts, prepared by KPMG on Oct. 9 this year, Lukoil International booked €95 billion of revenue and a net income of €7.8 billion in 2022 - a period that reflected the height of the European energy crisis.
It's not unusual for Russian firms to hold international assets through Austrian holding companies due to Vienna's traditionally close relations with Russia and a friendly legal climate. Sberbank PJSC had to wind down its European operations there in 2022 due to a liquidity crunch prompted by sanctions.
Filings show that Khavkin and Fedotov were listed as members of the executive body of Lukoil PJSC as recently as 2021. It wasn't immediately clear what roles they had now.