Vagit Alekperov

Founder and chief executive officer, Lukoil
Nationality: Azerbaijani-Russian.
Born: September 1, 1950, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Education: Azerbaijan Oil and Gas Institute, PhD, 1974.
Family: Married; children: one.
Career: Kaspmorneft, 1972–1974, drill operator; West Siberian oil production, 1974–1979, team leader, deputy chief, deputy director general; Kogalymneftegaz and Basneft, 1979–1982, director general; Kogalymneftegaz Oil, 1982–1990, director general; Soviet Union, 1990–1991, deputy minister of oil and gas, acting minister of fuel and energy; Lukoil, 1991–, president.
Awards: Order of People's Friendship, Order of Honor, medal for developing the oil and gas complex in western Siberia, Order of Glory, Global Corporate Leadership Award.
Address: OAO Lukoil, 11 Sretenski Boulevard, 101000 Moscow.



Vagit Y. Alekperov created Lukoil in 1991, when he was the deputy minister of oil, as one of the first attempts by the Russian government to privatize state enterprises. Eventually acquiring a controlling stake in Lukoil, Alekperov deployed capitalist management techniques, socialist industrial practices, strong-arm tactics, and political connections to make Lukoil on of the world's leading oil companies. With 21.45 billion barrels of proven and probable reserves in oil patches across Russia as well as 25 other countries, Lukoil ranked second in the world to ExxonMobil, which had 22 billion barrels of proven reserves. Lukoil, a publicly traded company on the NYSE, remained a tightly held company in 2003; its principal shareholders were Atlantic Richfield Company (6 percent), the Russian government (8 percent), Alekperov (10 percent), and Lukoil managers (20 percent). In addition to oil reserves, Lukoil owned eight refineries and 4,700 gas stations worldwide, with 2,000 in the United States. In 2002 Alekperov ranked

 

Vagit Alekperov heads Lukoil, Russia's largest independent oil company, which is developing the giant West Qurna-2 oilfield in Iraq, one of the largest deposits in the world. Oil extraction there started in March 2014. Alekperov is not a close ally of Putin, but his Lukoil, in which he has a nearly one-fourth stake, was hit by U.S. sanctions in September 2014 and was forced to cut its investment program. Alekperov had previously willed his Lukoil stake to his only son, Yusuf, with the caveat that his son will not have the right to sell this stake, ensuring the family will remain the oil giant's biggest shareholder. A former Caspian Sea oil rig worker, Alekperov became a deputy minister in the Soviet oil industry. In 1991 he took three large ministry-controlled oil fields and set up Lukoil. Alekperov penned a book called "Oil of Russia: Past, Present and Future." He is the founder of the foundation of regional social programs "Our Future", which is engaged in the development of social entrepreneurship.

OAO Lukoil’s billionaire Chief Executive Officer Vagit Alekperov, who owns about a fifth of the Russian oil producer, arranged for his son Yusuf to maintain his holding beyond his death.
“I’ve already arranged for my stake, even if I leave this life, to be indivisible to secure the company’s stability for many years ahead,” Alekperov said in an interview on Ekho Moskvy radio late yesterday. “My son won’t have the right to split and sell it.”
Alekperov, 62, owns more than 20 percent of Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer and the country’s biggest non-state energy company. His son Yusuf, a graduate of Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, works at oilfields in western Siberia as a technologist, according to the CEO.
“He must follow that path and see how people work at fields,” Alekperov said, adding that he isn’t preparing Yusuf to replace him. “Let him choose his fate for himself.”
The billionaire said he “always buys shares” in Lukoil and neither he nor other key holders offer them for sale on the market. The company is trading at half its true value, he said.
Lukoil shares have risen 12 percent in the past year, valuing the Moscow-based company at 1.7 trillion rubles ($57.2 billion). Alekperov’s net worth is estimated at $13.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.