STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Finnish petrol station operator, Teboil, owned by Russian oil major Lukoil, said on Wednesday it is preparing to shut down all its petrol stations in the country as fuel runs out amid U.S. sanctions against its parent company.
Teboil has 430 petrol stations in Finland, according to its website, or roughly one-fifth of the Nordic country’s 2,250 stations, according to a 2024 report by an industry group.
“Stations will close in phases once fuel stocks are sold out,” Teboil said in a statement.
Finland’s transport ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States last month hit Lukoil with sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, disrupting the company’s international business. The Finnish chain of petrol stations is the first Lukoil-owned international business to say it will close down as a result of the sanctions.
Elsewhere, Lukoil has declared force majeure at its prized West Qurna 2 oilfield in Iraq after Iraq halted all cash and crude payments due to the Western sanctions, while a contractor working for Lukoil cancelled plans to drill for petroleum off Romania, and Bulgaria prepared to take over Lukoil’s refinery there.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday gave clearance to potential buyers to talk to Lukoil about buying its non-Russian assets, and Teboil had said on Monday it expected Lukoil to sell the chain.
Teboil was not immediately available for further comment.
Finland’s Financial Supervisory Authority last month said banks and other Finnish institutions subject to its regulations should exercise caution in dealing with Lukoil and companies directly or indirectly owned by it.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm and Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, editing by Terje Solsvik and Elaine Hardcastle)
