Environmental incidents On one of the storage ponds at JSC "Lukoil-Volgograd-neftepererabotka" between 25 July and 8 August 1996, oil sludge was ignited due to the improper conduct of welding operations. The surface layer of oil products was formed during the last two decades, and a similar ignition in this area was already noted in 1972. As a result of the 1996 fire, approximately 50,000 tons of oil products were burned, as the soil at this site was already saturated with volatile fractions. Where the fire was first lit, the concentration of
carbon monoxide exceeded the permissible standards by almost 28 times,
nitrogen dioxide tripled,
hydrogen sulfide and
phenol more than 1.5 times. In the residential areas of the Krasnoarmeysky district of
Volgograd, located 7 km from the fire, as well as in the nearby settlements - B. and M. Chapurnik, Dubov Gully, Chervlen, Tingut - the content of combustion products in the air also exceeded the maximum permissible concentration. In the liquidation of this major technogenic emergency with severe environmental consequences, the divisions of the
Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia took part. In the autumn of 2003, the Russian Emergencies Ministry revealed the oil spill as a result of the depressurization of the interfacial oil pipeline belonging to the TPP Lukoil-Usinskneftegaz on the territory of the
Komi Republic near the city of
Usinsk. The area of oil pollution in one case was about 1.8 thousand m2, in the second - 377 m2. On 25 January 2011, at about 10:00 (local time), as a result of oil leakage in the engine room of LGPZ (CCI "Langepasneftegaz"), there was a fire. More than 50 firefighters extinguished the fire. The plant suspended its work. On 20 April 2012, at the Trebs field, jointly developed by Lukoil and Bashneft, an accident occurred that caused significant damage to the natural environment. Over the course of a day, oil continued to flow from the reopened well, resulting in large-scale contamination of the surrounding territory. According to the press service of the administration of the
Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the contamination area exceeded 5 thousand square meters, the volume of spilled oil, according to Bashneft, was 600 tonnes (in independent sources, numbers were up to 2.2 thousand tonnes). On 11 May 2021, a leakage was identified in a pipeline connected to Lukoil's Oshkoye field. The spill was estimated at 100 tons of oil, yet environmentalists argued that 100 tons is an underestimate. The spill had infiltrated the
Kolva river and traveled upstream, affecting the river habitats. Russia's Northwest Komi Republic declared an emergency. The damage was estimated at $4.1 billion.
Ukrainian investigation In January 2015, the
Security Service of Ukraine announced an investigation into whether Lukoil had financed separatists in
Donbas.
Antitrust law violations In November 2009, the
Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) imposed a record fine of
₽6.54 billion on the company for violating antitrust legislation. The fine was imposed for the abuse of the company's dominant position in the wholesale market of
petroleum products in the first half of 2009, expressed in "the seizure of goods from circulation" and the creation of "discriminatory conditions for the sale of petroleum products to individual counterparties". As FAS has calculated, these actions led to an increase in prices in the wholesale markets of motor
gasoline,
diesel fuel, and aviation
kerosene in the first half of 2009.
Cambridge Analytica In March 2018, the data firm
Cambridge Analytica, tied to the 2016 Trump Campaign, was accused of discussing "political targeting" of American voters with representatives of Lukoil. "Cambridge Analytica sought to identify mental and emotional characteristics in certain subsets of the American population and worked to exploit them by designing them to activate some of the worst vulnerabilities in people, such as
neuroticism,
paranoia and
racial biases," whistleblower
Christopher Wylie told the
Senate Judiciary Committee in 2018. With Lukoil, the consulting firm shared election disruption strategies, which included videos and posters intended to demoralise and alarm voters. Lukoil is on the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications list, has been linked to Russian influence in the past, and
CEO Vagit Alekperov, a former oil minister, had made statements suggesting that he considers helping Russia to be a strong political ambition.
VP driving accident On 25 February 2010, Lukoil's vice president crashed his
Mercedes S500 into a
Citroën C3 car with doctor Olga Alexandrina and famous
obstetrician Vera M. Sidelnikova inside; both women died in the collision. The
General Administration for Traffic Safety blamed the driver of the Citroën. Still, it was suggested that the administration was covering up the fact that the real culprit of the accident was the driver of the Mercedes, who, according to eyewitnesses, had driven around a traffic jam and entered the oncoming lane. There is also speculation that the driver of the Mercedes was the vice president of Lukoil himself. A few days after the accident, the Head of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of Moscow issued a notice of misconduct to the commander of the Traffic Police battalion who registered the accident on
Leninsky Avenue because he had prematurely called the driver of the Citroën, Olga Alexandrin, the culprit of the accident. The incident sparked a public reaction, particularly a boycott of the company's gas stations. Blogger Andrei Bocharov announced a mock advertisement of Lukoil based on this accident, and rapper
Noize MC wrote the song "Mercedes S666 (Make Way for the Chariot)".
Bulgaria In July 2011, Lukoil had a conflict with
Bulgarian authorities. According to the latter, the company's Bourgas refinery did not have timely installed meters for the manufactured fuel (used to determine the amount of excises paid), which, according to officials, Lukoil allegedly underpaid about €250 million to the country's budget. As a result, the company lost its license and was shut down, but in early August 2011, the plant was relaunched. In 2023, Bulgaria took the decision to force Russian energy companies out of the country, and increased the tax rate to 60% on the
Lukoil Neftohim Burgas profits, hoping the plant would be sold. Bulgaria also banned the export of refined Russian oil from 1 January 2024 and the import of Russian crude oil from 1 March 2024.
Romania In October 2023, Romania invalidated the petroleum products wholesale trading licence that had been held by the Swiss-registered subsidiary of Lukoil, Litasco SA, which supplies crude oil to and distributes refined oil from the
Petrotel Lukoil Refinery. Apart from a tax dispute, Romania claims the refinery does not disclose the source of its crude oil, the amount it processes, or where the refined oil is distributed.
Sanctions On 11 September 2014,
US President Obama said that the United States would join the
EU in imposing tougher sanctions on Russia's
financial,
energy and
defence sectors, following the escalation of
Russo-Ukrainian War. The U.S. added Lukoil to the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications list on 12 September 2014. This has resulted in the refinery being put under Italian trusteeship with a buyer being sought. New Zealand has sanctioned Lukoil. On 22 October 2025, the U.S. imposed further sanctions on Lukoil. == Criticism ==