I don’t want to focus too much on this, because there are multiple angles still at work.  However, against the backdrop of the non-coincidental coincidences that followed the August 2025 Alaska Summit, the Lukoil story looks strategically interesting.

The New York Times is looking at Lukoil from the perspective of President Trump organizing financial gains for people close to his administration, specifically Witkoff and Kusher.  {GO DEEP}

That aspect is nonsense, total nonsense; however, if you pull back and look at the background story without the Trump derangement overlay, there’s a potential here for something very good to come out of it.

As the story is told, Russian President Vladimir Putin has inquired about the potential for the U.S. to remove sanctions against Lukoil, a quasi-private energy company based out of Russia.  Before, getting too weedy about it, remind yourself of the statements that surfaced during the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, August, 2025.

You might remember that both the U.S and Russia spoke of strategic partnerships surrounding the energy sector.  Obviously, this makes sense when we consider the “west” is actually fractured on the topic of energy.  There are two competing interests that overlap in the financial side of the issue, the ‘trillions at stake’ aspect.

On one side you have the “climate change” team, those who are fully invested (literally) in the financial mechanisms of the climate change, green new deal, build back better talking points.  The Green Energy team in the west.  The Paris Climate Treaty and carbon-trading proponents et al.

On the other side you have the pragmatic energy team in the west.  These are the Trump-minded and aligned western perspectives that look at oil, natural gas (LNG), clean coal and nuclear technology.  These are the “all the above” aligned voices in the more pragmatic view of low-cost energy production and development.

In the middle, between both sides of the fracture, are the banking and finance systems.  This is the BIG MONEY play, with the Climate Change team supported by banking ideology inside the city of London, while the Carbon Use team is constantly having to assemble finance and insurance from outside the banking control mechanisms.

The Climate Change team have support based on ideology within the finance system.  However, the Carbon Use team have the advantage of low-price outputs, global dependency and actual profits as leverage.  This is a fight essentially inside the larger energy sector, and we are all very familiar with it because it has been happening for decades.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is currently the main tool deployed by the Climate Change team on behalf of the London finance system.  Carney’s main opponent is U.S. President Donald Trump.

Now we enter the Lukoil storyline.

Lukoil, a Russian enterprise, has some pretty amazing holdings in oil fields, gas fields, refineries in Europe as well as retail outlets for gasoline and LNG sale, their distribution.  The estimated worth is north of $28 billion.  Those holdings have been the subject of on/off sanctions as a result of the Russian ownership/operations.

Let me share some of the holdings {SOURCE} as you read this, think about the recent headlines involving each of these nation states: Lukoil’s biggest foreign asset is a 75% stake in Iraq’s West Qurna 2, one of the world’s largest oilfields. Lukoil also owns 60% of Iraq’s Block 10 development, which includes the Eridu field west of Basra. In Egypt, the company holds a 50% stake in the West Esh El Mallaha (WEEM) oilfield. In the UAE, Lukoil owns 10% of the Ghasha concession, one of Abu Dhabi’s largest gas developments.

Central Asia – Lukoil holds 13.5% in Karachaganak and 5% in Tengiz – major Kazakh oil and gas projects operated by Western oil companies. It also has a 12.5% stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which exports oil from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea. Lukoil doesn’t have to sell these assets as the U.S. Treasury has allowed transactions involving Karachaganak, Tengiz and CPC.
The Russian firm also owns nearly 20% of the BP-operated Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. It also operates the South-West Gissar gas field in Uzbekistan and holds a 90% stake in the Kandym fields development near the country’s border with Turkmenistan.

Africa and Latin America – Lukoil has a 38% interest in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points block that includes the Pecan oilfield development off Ghana.  It also has 25% in Eni-operated gas block Marine XII offshore Congo and 18% in Chevron-operated exploration block OML 140 off Nigeria. In Mexico, it partners with Eni in several offshore blocks and owns 50% of the Amatitlan block, operated by Petrolera de Amatitlan SAPI de CV.

REFINING ASSETS: In Bulgaria, Lukoil owns the 190,000 barrels per day Neftohim Burgas refinery, the largest in the Balkans. In Romania, Lukoil owns the 48,600 bpd Petrotel refinery, the country’s third-largest, and around 300 gas stations. Lukoil also owns exploration rights in the Romanian sector of the Black Sea, but drilling plans have been stymied by the sanctions. In the Netherlands, Lukoil holds 45% in the 180,000 bpd Zeeland refinery, operated by a joint venture with France’s TotalEnergies.

Lukoil also has retail gas stations in Finland, Romania, Moldova and the USA (northeast).

According to recent reports, Vladimir Putin has inquired about a strategic energy partnership with the U.S, and it would make sense that all of these assets could be part of a restructuring regime that would need U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to approve given the current sanctions problem. That’s where the NYT report comes back in.

….”a different group emerged as the leading bidder: one led by Mr. Boehly, a billionaire supporter of Mr. Trump’s, alongside well-connected figures in the Middle East and the U.S. government itself. The members of the partnership were reported last week by The Financial Times.

Mr. Boehly is a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and donated $1 million to MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned political committee, in December 2025. He gave another $1 million through his investment firm, Eldridge Industries, to Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

The U.S. government is taking a stake in the deal through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, an agency that invests in and lends to projects overseas. A D.F.C. official said in a statement that the potential Lukoil deal “would advance the Trump administration’s commitment to strengthen U.S. economic security, advance U.S. foreign policy and lower energy prices for everyday Americans.” (READ MORE)

The British, European and Canadian climate change group (ideology, banking and finance), versus the USA, Mexico, South America, Russia, Central Asia and Middle East.

That’s an interesting geopolitical contest, no?

Is it accidental this global friction map makes an almost identical overlay to those interests opposed to President Donald Trump?

Perhaps looking at the Russian Sanctions map again might provide a visual reference:

Don’t forget what Putin said – GO DEEP

Speculation, exchange trading, market pricing, etc. these are the reasons why the EU presented an increase in central bank interest rates to try and lower energy prices.  The central bank approach has nothing to do with the price of the energy (oil/gas) and everything to do with the financial markets speculating on the prices of oil and gas and profiting from the speculation/trading itself.

As noted by Russian President Putin, allowing hedge funds, financial interests and inorganic market forces to set the prices of an item (London Banking) disconnects that item from the economic principle of supply and demand.  The prices that people suffer for oil and gas are being driven by the mechanisms set up by western financial interests.  This is manipulative and creates pain on the consumer and the people who have to pay more.

…”A strategic partnership based on energy“?

An apoplectic London Banking system?

Posted in Banking and Finance, Big Government, Canada, Climate Change, Conspiracy ?, Deep State, Donald Trump, Economy, energy, European Union, media bias, President Trump, propaganda, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Trade Deal, Uncategorized, United Kingdom (UK) and Great Britain, US Treasury, USA
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