The United States is expected to grant an open-ended exemption from sanctions for Rosneft’s German subsidiary, in a move that would ease immediate pressure on Berlin’s management of strategic refining assets seized from Russian control after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The measure concerns Rosneft Deutschland and related German operations which, although still formally linked to Russia’s state oil giant, have been under German state trusteeship since September 2022. The assets were placed under the control of the Federal Network Agency, or Bundesnetzagentur, after Berlin concluded that continued Russian control posed a risk to energy security. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had already issued a temporary general licence in October 2025 authorising transactions involving Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing until 29 April 2026.
According to the Bloomberg and Reuters reports, Washington now plans to remove the uncertainty created by that expiry date and replace it with an exemption without a fixed end point. Reuters said Germany’s economy ministry confirmed that discussions with the US authorities were continuing over an extension, while Bloomberg reported that an announcement from OFAC could come on Friday, although the timetable could still change.
The decision matters because Rosneft Deutschland remains a significant part of Germany’s fuel infrastructure. According to the German economy ministry, the company accounts for about 12 per cent of German oil refining capacity. Its holdings include stakes in the PCK Schwedt refinery, MiRO in Karlsruhe and Bayernoil in Bavaria. Reuters reported last week that Rosneft’s German units contribute about 13 per cent of the country’s oil-processing capacity.
Schwedt is particularly sensitive for the German government. The refinery supplies much of the Berlin and Brandenburg region and became one of the most politically and economically complicated energy assets in Germany after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shattered the country’s long-standing dependence on Russian crude. While Berlin took control of Rosneft’s local subsidiaries in 2022, it did not nationalise them outright. Instead, it has repeatedly renewed the trusteeship arrangement, creating a structure in which the German state manages the assets without formally owning them.
That arrangement has required constant legal and diplomatic maintenance. Last week Berlin had again placed Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing under trusteeship as part of an effort to establish more durable control over the assets. The European Commission had approved the updated structure, allowing Germany to continue shielding the refineries from disruption while keeping the fuel supply stable.
The sanctions question became more urgent after Washington imposed wider restrictions on Rosneft in late 2025. The temporary US licence prevented German business partners, banks and service providers from having to choose between dealing with a company tied to a sanctioned Russian parent and maintaining normal refinery operations in Germany. An indefinite exemption would reduce that risk further by removing the need for another deadline-driven renewal next month.
For Berlin, the expected waiver would amount to a practical diplomatic success. Germany has been trying to keep Rosneft’s German holdings operational while seeking a longer-term structural solution. Without a sanctions carve-out from Washington, any continued commercial dealings involving the subsidiaries could have become more difficult, even though the companies have been under German supervision for more than three years. The aim of the exemption was to avoid disruption to German refining operations at a time when energy markets remain exposed to wider geopolitical tensions.
The broader ownership issue, however, remains unresolved. Rosneft still formally owns the German subsidiaries, and legal disputes over Berlin’s intervention have continued. A German court previously rejected a Rosneft challenge to the government’s decision to place the subsidiaries under state administration, but the case has remained politically sensitive because it sits at the intersection of sanctions policy, energy security and property rights.
If confirmed in the coming days, the US decision would not alter the underlying ownership structure. What it would do is give Berlin more room to manage critical refining assets without the immediate pressure of a looming sanctions deadline. For Germany, that may be the most important part of the decision: not a final settlement, but a temporary state of legal and financial stability for infrastructure it regards as too important to leave in limbo.
