Oil Trader’s Russian Ties Eased the Way for Big Sanctions Prize

The two biggest deals of Torbjörn Törnqvist’s life have happened because of US sanctions.

In 2014, sanctions on his Russian partner handed him control of the energy trader they’d co-founded. Now eleven years later, the billionaire head of Gunvor Group is again seizing on an opportunity created by American sanctions with a company-transforming deal that taps into a history of close ties in Russia — but needs goodwill in Washington to succeed.

Torbjörn Törnqvist

Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg

If he can pull it off, Gunvor’s purchase of the international assets of Lukoil PJSC, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, will catapult the energy trader into the ...