Oil Trader Litasco Starts Terminating Jobs as US Sanctions Near

(Bloomberg) — Oil trader Litasco SA is starting to terminate jobs with days to go until US sanctions are to come into effect on the firm’s parent company, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Employees at the Geneva-headquartered firm are starting to sign mutually agreed termination contracts, according to the person, who asked not to be named discussing confidential information. They didn’t say what roles were being terminated.

Litasco SA is a unit of Russian oil giant Lukoil PJSC, which — along with Rosneft PJSC — was sanctioned by the US last month, with transactions still allowed until Nov. 21.

Lukoil and Litasco didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

A deal to buy Lukoil’s international assets was scuppered last week when the US Treasury described would-be buyer Gunvor Group as the Kremlin’s “puppet,” prompting it to withdraw its offer.

–With assistance from Jack Farchy.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.