OREANDA-NEWS  LUKOIL has completed the sale of the ISAB refinery in Italy with the G.O.I. Energy group.

ISAB is the largest oil refinery in Italy, it used to buy 30-40% of raw materials in Russia. LUKOIL acquired the plant in 2008, the company owns 49% of the enterprise. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, ESAB's production volume was 10.6 million tons per year, which is 13% of the total volume of refined oil in Italy.

LUKOIL signed a deal with G.O.I. Energy to sell the ISAB refinery for €1.5 billion in January, but received permission from the Council of Ministers only on April 12. The deal was scheduled to close on March 31, but Italian officials suspended this process. The Financial Times wrote that Italian officials were reviewing the agreement after the US government privately expressed concern that a Russian company was selling its asset to a little-known fund in Cyprus.