The US government will check if sanctions were violated when Russia struck a deal to sell a stake in oil producer Rosneft to a consortium of Qatar’s sovereign fund and commodities trader Glencore.
The White House said experts at the Department of Treasury will “look carefully” at the transaction.
Press Secretary Josh Earnest said: “They’ll look at the terms of the deal and evaluate what impact sanctions would have on it.”
Rosneft is one of the Russian entities covered by US sanctions, which were imposed after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region two years ago.
The $11.3billion deal has been presented as a major coup by the Kremlin.