“You can’t pay with a card” – at Lukoil gas stations you can purchase fuel only with cash

At Lukoil gas stations you can no longer pay with a plastic card. Fuel can be purchased only with cash.

“You can’t fill up with a card, only with cash they cancelled card payments,” employees told Batumelebi at one of the Lukoil gas stations, where we went to purchase premium-grade fuel.

When asked how long card payments have been unavailable, we were told that the restriction has been in place for five days.

“The cash collection service comes and takes the money,” they told us at the Lukoil station.

“Card payments are temporarily unavailable. There is no exact date for when card payments will be restored,” a Lukoil hotline operator told Batumelebi.

The financial sanctions that the United States imposed on the Russian oil company Lukoil on October 22 also apply to its Georgian subsidiary, Lukoil-Georgia.

The U.S. Treasury attached a document stating that until November 21, 2025, sanctions would not affect Lukoil gas stations located outside Russia.

Later, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) extended the deadline by three weeks and announced that sanctions against Lukoil would take effect on December 13, 2025.

Batumelebi attempted to obtain official information from the company, but so far Lukoil-Georgia has not provided any comment.