In a recent article in The Currency, Jonathan Keane reports that U.S. authorities have issued a license allowing Australian natural gas company Tamboran Resources to acquire Falcon Oil & Gas, which is based in Ireland and incorporated in British Columbia.
The sale of Falcon to Tamboran has been complicated because Falcon is part-owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg who, along with his company Renova, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2018.
Viktor Vekselberg and his cousin Andrew Intrater had both attended Trump’s inauguration in 2017. Andrew Intrater had donated to Trump and also to George Santos, and his firm Columbus Nova paid former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen $500,000. Viktor Vekselberg, with Mikhail Fridman and Len Blavatnik, had made a $28 billion fortune selling their stake of TNK-BP to state-owned Russian energy company Rosneft in 2013. Vekselberg and Blavatnik created a company, Sual Partners, which was a 15% investor in Oleg Deripaska’s Rusal. I recently reported that in 2024 Len Blavatnik invested in Israeli company Xtend, which is now merging with JFB Construction, where Eric Trump is an investor.
The Currency reported on the deal between Tamboran and Falcon Oil & Gas valued at approximately €134 million:
The acquisition of Falcon Oil & Gas will see more than $23 million paid to a sanctioned Russian oligarch after the deal received a licence from US authorities to move ahead…The transaction has been bedevilled by one of Falcon’s shareholders, Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian businessman under US sanctions, which has cast a legal shadow over the deal.
A 2025 press release by Tamboran described the agreement to acquire Falcon Oil & Gas to consolidate their assets in the Beetaloo Basin in Australia.
The March 2026 Form 10-Q filing for Tamboran says that the Supreme Court of British Columbia approved the deal in April and the U.S. Treasury Department’s Foreign Assets Control approved the deal this May:
On April 14, 2026, the parties received final court approval (the “Final Order”) from the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the “Court”). Pursuant to the Final Order, the Subject Shareholder is entitled to receive the greater of the Cash Consideration and the fair value of its ownership interests in Falcon, as determined by the Court. On May 5, 2026, the Company received approval from the Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury issuing Tamboran an amended license permitting the parties to consummate the Falcon Acquisition. The Falcon Acquisition is expected to be completed during the three months ended June 30, 2026
A 2020 Guardian story described Viktor Vekselberg’s investment in Falcon Oil & Gas and that Maxim Mayorets, a former board member of Vekselberg’s Renova, served as a director of Falcon. A review of the wayback machine shows that in 2021, in addition to Mayorets, another Falcon was JoAchim Conrad, who was previously a director and advisor to Russian oil company Gazprom’s German operations.
A 2022 release by Falcon Oil & Gas had addressed sanctions imposed on Viktor Vekselberg and noted that he held 100% of the shares of Lamesa Holding S.A. which holds 16% of the shares of Falcon Oil & Gas. They noted that neither Lamesa nor Vekselberg had any influence or control over Falcon operations. In 2022 both Mayorets and Conrad stepped down from the board.
While Lamesa had owned 16% of Falcon, according to information on AIM Rule 26 on the Falcon Oil & Gas website, Lamesa Holdings S.A. owns 14.16% of shares of the company.
The Currency reported the sale is valued at approximately €134 million, which means that Vekselberg’s share of 14% would be worth around €18 million ($21 million USD). While the amount is not very large, it is notable that the US Treasury has approved the deal in which Vekselberg is a significant shareholder.
In an interesting twist also reported by The Currency and reported here by Falcon, lawyers for Viktor Vekselberg had appeared in court this past March to oppose the deal to sell Falcon Oil & Gas to Tamboran.