Who owns Lukoil? Russian oil company PJSC Lukoil. Alekperov Vagit Yusufovich Biography Vagit Alekperov how to find the main office

With a personal fortune of $ 13.9 billion, in 2011 he took 8th place in the list of 200 richest businessmen in Russia (according to Forbes magazine).

Biography

Vagit Alekperov was born on September 1, 1950 in the village of Stepan Razin (Baku) in the family of an oilman and was the fifth child in the family. His father is Yusuf Kerbalaevich Alekperov, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, an Azerbaijani by nationality, and his mother Tatyana Fedorovna Bocharova is Russian. His father died in 1953, when Vagit was three years old and his mother raised the children alone. From 1972 to 1974, Alekperov worked as an oil and gas production operator at the Kaspmorneft production association. In 1974, he graduated from the Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry with a degree in Mining Engineer in Technology and Integrated Mechanization for the Development of Oil and Gas Fields. In the period from 1974 to 1979, Alekperov worked as a senior process engineer of the district engineering and technological service No. 2, shift supervisor, oil and gas production foreman, senior engineer, deputy head of the oil field of the A. Serebrovsky Oil and Gas Production Department of the Caspmorneft Production Association.

Later he worked in various senior positions in the oil industry:

• 1979 - Senior Engineer of the Oilfield No. 2 of the Fedorovskneft Oil and Gas Production Department of the Surgutneftegaz Production Association of Glavtyumenneftegaz of the USSR Ministry of the Oil Industry, Surgut, Tyumen Region.
• Member of the CPSU.
• 1979-1980 - head of the oil field No. 2 of the NGDU Fedorovskneft.
• 1980-1981 - Head of the Central Engineering and Technological Service of OGPD Kholmogorneft, Production Association Surgutneftegaz, pos. Noyabrsk, Purovsky district, Tyumen region.
• 1981-1983 - Chief Engineer, Deputy Head of Oil and Gas Production Department "Lyantorneft" Production Association "Surgutneftegaz", pos. Lyantor, Surgut district, Tyumen region.
• 1983-1985 - Head of the Povkhneft Oil and Gas Production Department of the Surgutneftegaz Production Association, pos. Kogalym, Surgut district, Tyumen region.
• 1985-1987 - First Deputy General Director of Production Association "Bashneft" for Western Siberia of the Ministry of Oil Industry of the USSR, Kogalym.

• 1987-1990 - General Director of Production Association "Kogalymneftegaz" of Glavtyumenneftegaz, Kogalym.
• 1990-1991 - Deputy Minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of the USSR.
• 1991-1992 - First Deputy Minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of the USSR
• 1992-1993 - President of the oil concern "LUKOIL".
• Since 1993 - President of OAO LUKOIL.
• Since 2007, he has been the founder of the Our Future Foundation for Regional Social Programs.
• Since 2010, he has been a member of the Board of the Skolkovo Foundation.

In 1995, Alekperov was elected chairman of the board of directors of Imperial Bank. In the same year, he was included in the collegium of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy. The head of Lukoil has developed big business in Belarus. He owns one of the largest private oil traders engaged in the supply of oil, its processing and export, the largest private network of filling stations, as well as a joint venture for the production of motor additives at Novopolotsk Naftan.

Personal life

Vagit Alekperov is married, his wife is Larisa Viktorovna Alekperova. In 1990, his son Yusuf was born, as of 2012 he studied at the Russian State University of Oil and Gas. Gubkin with a degree in development and operation of oil fields. In his spare time, he prefers to hang out with friends. Hobbies - traveling, tennis; prefers to rest in the Crimea.

Vagit Alekperov - Doctor of Economics, full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

State

According to Forbes magazine, Alekperov's personal fortune in 1996 was $1.4 billion. For the first time, Alekperov's salary was officially made public in 2002, in connection with the upcoming placement of ADS for the state-owned stake in the company. At that time, according to a five-year contract, the salary of the president of Lukoil was $1.5 million per year plus an annual bonus of $2.225 million (150% of the salary).

According to the Forbes magazine rating published in March 2009, Alekperov's fortune reached $ 7.8 billion, and he himself took 57th place in the world ranking of the richest people. As of February 16, 2010, Alekperov occupies the seventh position in the list of the richest Russians with a fortune of $10.6 billion.

Awards

• Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (2010) - for a great contribution to the development of the oil and gas complex and many years of conscientious work
• Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (2005)
• Order of Friendship (1995)
• Order of the Badge of Honor (1986)
• Medal "For the development of mineral resources and the development of the oil and gas complex of Western Siberia"
• Order of Glory (2001, Azerbaijan) - for merits in the development of economic relations between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation
• Order of the Madara Horseman, 1st class (2006, Bulgaria)
• Twice laureate of the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation
• Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh I, II and III degrees (ROC)
• Order of the Holy Right-believing Prince Daniel of Moscow II and III degrees (ROC)
• Laureate of the Russian national award in 2001 "Business Olympus"

The fortune of Russian businessman Vagit Alekperov by March 2009 decreased from $14.3 billion in 2007 to $7.8 billion. In the world ranking of the richest people in the world, compiled by Forbes magazine in March 2009, Alekperov takes 57th place.

On April 5, 1993, the state concern Langepas-Urai-Kogalym-neft was transformed into the joint-stock company Oil Company Lukoil, with Alekperov as its president.

In 1995-1998 Alekperov was Chairman of the Supervisory Board, member of the Board of Trustees, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Imperial Bank.

In 1995 - 2000 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Petrocommerce Bank.

In 1996 - 2002 he was a member of the Board of Directors of CJSC Volga-Kama Oil Company.

In 2001-2004, he headed the board of the Association of Scientific and Technical Centers of NK LUKOIL.

In 2001-2006, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO RITEK.

Since 2000 - Chairman of the Supervisory Board of LUKOIL International GmbH.

Since 2005, he has been a member of the government commission on the issues of the fuel and energy complex and the reproduction of the mineral resource base.

In April 1996, during the campaign for the presidential elections in the Russian Federation, Alekperov was a confidant of Russian President Boris Yeltsin in the Tyumen region.

In 2000, Alekperov joined the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP). Subsequently, he was re-elected to the board twice - in 2003 and 2006. In June 2006, Alekperov headed the Committee on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency and Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex established in the RSPP.

Alekperov - Doctor of Economics, full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, author of a number of books and scientific publications, including the monographs "Vertical Integrated Oil Companies of Russia: Methodology of Formation and Implementation" (1996) and "Oil of Russia: The View of a Top Manager" (2001 ).

Vagit Alekperov - twice laureate of the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation, awarded four orders and eight medals, including the Order of the Badge of Honor (1986), Friendship (1996), the Order of Glory (for merits in the development of economic ties between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation), the medal " For the development of mineral resources and the development of the oil and gas complex in Western Siberia", the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", IV degree (2005).

Vagit Alekperov is one of the richest people in Russia, whose fortune in 2017 is estimated at $ 14.5 billion. The billionaire ascended to the heights of financial well-being from the bottom of the oil industry and rose from the position of an ordinary driller to the president of the second largest oil company in Russia, Lukoil .

Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov was born on September 1, 1950 in the village of Stepan Razin, located not far from the Azerbaijani capital Baku, in a large family, in which he became the fifth, youngest of the children. Father Yusuf Kerbalaevich Alekperov, an Azerbaijani by nationality, worked as a mechanic in the oil fields and was a veteran of the Second World War, and his mother, Russian Cossack Tatyana Fedorovna Bocharova, kept house and was engaged in raising children.

When the future oil tycoon turned 3 years old, grief happened in the family - his father died, the cause of death was received during the war and not completely healed wounds. As a result, the mother was left alone with five children in her arms and without a livelihood. The woman desperately began to fight for the children and worked around the clock to feed them. Tatyana Fedorovna categorically rejected the offer to send the children to an orphanage, which they highly appreciated and tried to help their mother pull the family out of poverty.

To help his mother feed his family, little Vagit also did not remain aloof from the common cause: the boy was engaged in fishing "fishing" - he set the lines far in the Caspian Sea and collected a catch from them by the evening of every day. Trying to be useful to the family, Alekperov did not forget about education. Vagit studied perfectly at school, was a calm and assiduous boy.

The main authority for Alekperov throughout his life was his mother, whom the son did not want to upset with his own behavior. Therefore, yard games with peers were unacceptable for the future oilman, who from early childhood wanted to link his fate with black gold. For this, the young man graduated from the Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry and, with a diploma in mining engineering, boldly set off on a long journey in pursuit of a dream.

Business

Before becoming a successful businessman, Vagit Alekperov had to go through a difficult and thorny path to success, starting from the bottom. Even in his student years, Vagit got a job as a driller in the Kaspmorneft company, which became the starting point in the professional biography of the oligarch. In the first years, the future entrepreneur had to work in extreme conditions: Vagit went to sea on unequipped oil platforms, which were subject to fires and explosions. One day, a young worker was thrown into the open sea by a blast wave. Vagit was saved only thanks to the ability to swim well.

Within five years of graduating from the institute, Alekperov managed to rise from a simple oil and gas production operator to a deputy shop manager, which was the first career achievement of the future oil tycoon. In the early 80s, Vagit Yusufovich was sent to Western Siberia on a party order, where he worked as a leader in large oil companies such as Surgutneft and Fedorovskneft.

In the mid-80s, Vagit Alekperov was appointed to the post of general director of Kogalymneftegaz. In this post, he made a number of important acquaintances with the oilmen of the Siberian branches, with one of whom, Yuri Shafranik, he later founded the business of a lifetime.

The enterprising head of the oil complex enjoyed authority among the party authorities, as well as among the workers. There are cases when, during emergencies that could lead to an explosion on an oil pipe, Alekperov was personally present at the facility and helped in troubleshooting. In 1990, a young enterprising leader was invited to Moscow, to the post of Deputy Minister of the Oil Industry. Alekperov's duties included establishing contacts with foreign colleagues. In the very first year of work in the ministry, Vagit participated in a trip to Great Britain at the head of a delegation of Soviet oilmen, at the invitation of British Petroleum. Two years later, the Lukoil company appeared, which quickly began to develop.

In 1995, oil tycoon Vagit Alekperov replenished his assets with shares in the largest Russian bank, Imperial, which collapsed in 1998 during the global crisis. The oligarch also has a large private network of gas stations, a private oil trader and an enterprise for the production of motor additives.

President of NK Lukoil Vagit Alekperov expanded the scope of the oil business in many countries of the world. Representative offices of the company operate in Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, USA and Bulgaria. For successful work in the field of mining, the billionaire was repeatedly awarded honorary awards and presented to government awards. Brief information about Alekperov's career is posted on the official website of the company.

In 2007, the oilman created the Our Future charitable foundation, which is engaged in the development of social entrepreneurship in Russia. The oil tycoon bequeathed his own shares of Lukoil to this fund, which will allow the organization to exist even after the death of Vagit Yusufovich. Since 2010, Alekperov has also been a member of the Board of the Skolkovo Foundation.

Personal life

The personal life of Vagit Alekperov has developed successfully, as well as his business career. The oilman married at the beginning of his professional career Larisa Viktorovna, who for 40 years has been the constant and devoted companion of the oligarch's life. In 1990, the only son was born to an oil tycoon and his wife, whom Vagit named after his father -.

The boy followed in his father's footsteps and is trying to realize himself in the oil sector, having received an appropriate education at the Russian State University of Oil and Gas. Yusuf received his second higher education with a degree in Economics and Management. The young man is fond of collecting expensive cars, photos of which end up on the pages of the young man on social networks.

Billionaire Vagit Alekperov devotes his free time from the oil business to his family. The couple and their son love to travel the world, but they consider Crimea to be their favorite place for leisure. Also among the hobbies of the oligarch, big and small tennis are in priority.

Condition assessment

The fortune of Vagit Alekperov in 2016 by the Russian Forbes was estimated at $ 8.9 billion. This allowed the head of Lukoil to take 9th place in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia. Over the year, the amount increased to $14.5 billion, which raised the oligarch's rating to sixth position in Russia and 74th place in the world ranking.

In addition to the billion dollar fortune, the oil tycoon's assets include the Numismatics Museum, which Alekperov opened in Moscow in 2015. The exposition includes 700 ancient coins, the most expensive of which was bought in 2013 for $410 million.

Vagit Alekperov now

In 2016, the Elias company, controlled by Vagit Alekperov, acquired 36 hectares of Crimean vineyards. The public expressed fears about the misuse of the vineyards by the new owners in the future. It is expected that construction will begin at the new location.

Now Vagit Alekperov continues to develop the geography of Lukoil's fields. In November 2017, the head of the oil corporation visited Udmurtia, where geological exploration is already underway at three sites, while nine more projects have been launched.

At the end of November, Alekperov arrived in the Volgograd region, where he signed an agreement on socio-economic cooperation with the governor.

In mid-December, the Prosecutor General's Office began checking the documentation of Otkritie Bank, the main shareholder of which, in addition to Vadim Belyaev, is Vagit Alekperov. In 2017, the bank acquired the Arkhagelskgeoldobycha diamond mining company, which belonged to Alekperov, at an inflated price. The deal was fatal for the credit corporation, the Central Bank needed funds to rehabilitate the bank. The prosecutor's office suspects that the difference was divided between the three main shareholders. The participants in the transaction are threatened with penalty stations in favor of the bank experiencing problems.

Many Russian citizens would like to know who owns Lukoil, one of the largest private oil companies in our country. The recent international economic forum in St. Petersburg shed light on this mystery. The head and co-owner of PAO made a statement. He spoke about who owns Lukoil. Vagit Alekperov previously reported that 50% of the company is owned by foreign investors, he personally owns only 20%, and another 10% of the shares are held by the vice president, Leonid Fedun.

How it was

At a summit on technological innovations and changes in the global energy market, President Vladimir Putin confidently stated that companies in which foreign investors participate produce 25% of all Russia's oil. He stressed that we do not have a single large firm without foreign participation. Even the state-owned Rosneft is a joint-stock company. This fragment of VV Putin's speech was published by mass media.

After this statement, the President of the Russian Federation directly addressed Vagit Alekperov with a specific question: "Who really owns Lukoil? How many foreigners do you have, approximately?" The head of the oil company named the figure - 50%. V. Alekperov himself is the owner of 20% of the shares. But it was not always so.

Previously, the largest foreign holder of Lukoil's shares was the American company ConocoPhillips. In the spring of 2010, she sold her stake (just about 20%). Information about the buyer is not disclosed. It is only known that the sale process was fully completed in early 2011.

And now we have to figure out who owns Lukoil at the moment. There are still rumors on the Internet that ConocoPhillips is still a strategic partner of this oil company. Allegedly, she owns a blocking stake, and her representatives are members of the board of directors and participate in joint projects. However, it is not.

successes

The international vertically integrated company is the largest not only in our country, but also in the whole world. It occupies the top positions in terms of hydrocarbon reserves. Now some specifics. Oil reserves in the fields owned by the company are the largest in the world. All experts know about it.

PJSC Lukoil produces hydrocarbons not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders. Where exactly? The company owns numerous mining companies both in Western and Eastern Europe. Therefore, it is not so easy to determine who actually owns Lukoil.

The company sells products through its distribution networks in more than 20 countries around the world. In any case, in the US, Lukoil filling stations are the first in terms of the number of filling stations among other manufacturers. The shares of this company are traded not only on Russian, but also on foreign exchanges, they are among the so-called "blue chips" supplied from the Russian stock market. Where is the main office of the company "Lukoil"? Address (legal): Moscow, Sretensky Boulevard, building No. 11.

Structure

The competitiveness of a company directly depends on the effectiveness of corporate governance. And it is provided by more than one president of PJSC Lukoil. Development is impossible without a well-established management structure that would determine the relationship between shareholders, the executive body and the Board of Directors. Only in this case, investors will be confident in the reasonableness of the funds spent by management. A properly built management structure effectively contributes to the growth of the company's capitalization.

The PJSC system has established reliable and trusting relationships between the community of shareholders and investors. Therefore, their cooperation is strong, effective and long. The investment attractiveness of the company is increasing year by year.

The principles of interaction between shareholders and the company itself are as transparent as possible. What does it mean? Shareholders of PJSC "Lukoil" can follow how the general management is carried out, as well as receive up-to-date information on financial transactions.

Who is at the head of the corporate governance system? This is the Board of Directors, which manages in the interests of shareholders and investors. It includes independent directors. Such an approach helps to form an objective opinion of the Council on any of the issues discussed. These factors also strengthen the confidence of shareholders and investors in PJSC Lukoil.

Each division of the general structure has its own director. Each of them was elected to the Board at the general meeting of shareholders in June 2017. It is they who now determine the priority areas of the oil company's activities, develop its strategic, medium-term and annual planning, and will also sum up the results of all work. How many directors are on the Board? Only eleven people, including three foreigners (two of them are engaged in personnel policy and remuneration, and one is in investments).

Persons

The President of the company is Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov, who is an executive member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Management Board of the company. This person is written a lot in the media. He has been a member of the Council since 1993.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Valery Isaakovich Graifer. This is not his only position. V. Greifer also chairs the Board of Directors of AO RITEK. In PJSC Lukoil, he was elected to the Board of Directors in 1996.

His deputy is Ravil Ulfatovich Maganov, who is an executive member of the board, the investment and strategy committee, and a member of the company's board. He was the first executive vice president of exploration and production. Member of the Board of Directors since 1993.

Blazheev Viktor Vladimirovich is a member of the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Human Resources Committee. Concurrently, he works as the rector of the Moscow State Law University named after Kutafin (MSLA). Member of the Board of Directors since 2009.

It is impossible not to single out one more person. This is Igor Sergeevich Ivanov. He is a member of the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Investment and Strategy Committee, and sits on the Audit Committee. In addition, Ivanov chairs the RIAC. Member of the Board of Directors since 2009. The management of the company considers him a valuable employee.

Roger Mannings is a member of the British-Russian Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Board of Directors and chairs the Human Resources Committee. He is also an independent member of the Board of Directors of AFK Sistema OJSC, the largest public diversified financial company in Russia and the CIS, engaged in telecommunications, insurance, finance, media business, retail, oil industry, radio electronics, mechanical engineering. This is not a complete list yet. R. Mannings has been on the Board of Directors of PJSC Lukoil since 2015.

Introducing another foreign specialist - American Toby Trister Gati. She came to the Board of Directors a year later than Mannings. Now the woman is on the investment and strategy committee, along the way being the president of TTG Global LLC. And before that she was the US Deputy Secretary of State for Research and Intelligence, and also an adviser to Bill Clinton (when he was president) on Russian affairs.

Toby Trister Gati is not going to completely leave politics. But for now, she's content with being a senior advisor to the world's most lucrative lobby group, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. She loves Brzezinski. Probably, in order to form an opinion on the composition of the leadership of NK Lukoil, this information must be taken into account, since the business policy of our country directly depends on the worldview of its participants.

Personnel Committee

Richard Matzke is on the Board of Directors of PJSC Lukoil for the second time: first from 2002 to 2009, then re-elected in 2011. The committee deals with personnel and remuneration. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Directors of the US-Russian Chamber of Commerce. That's not all. Richard Matzke also sits on the third Board of Directors - at PHI, Inc. (Project Harmony Inc.), and on the Board of Directors of the well-known Chinese company PetroChina Company Limited, specializing in the exploration, production and refining of oil.

Audit and Development Strategies

Yvan Pictet is a successful Swiss banker. He has been on the Board of Directors of Lukoil since 2012. Works on the audit committee. In addition, he chairs the boards of directors of the Symbiotics companies, as well as PSA International SA. In addition, Ivan Pictet is the president of two foundations - Fondation pour Geneve and Fondation Pictet pour le development. Member of the AEA European Advisory Board. We talked about foreigners.

Two more members of the Board of Directors are Russians. This is a member of the investment and strategy committee, as well as holding the position of vice president of strategic development of the company since 2013. And the second person is Lyubov Nikolaevna Khoba. In addition to being a member of the Board of Directors, he is the chief accountant of PJSC Lukoil and its vice president.

About Committees

In August 2003 committees were established under the Board of Directors. Each of them had their own goals and objectives. Igor Sergeevich Ivanov - Chairman of the Investment and Strategy Committee. Toby Trister Gati, Ravil Ulfatovich Maganov and Leonid Arnoldovich Fedun work with him. The Audit Committee is chaired by Viktor Vladimirovich Blazheev. And his colleagues are Igor Sergeevich Ivanov and Ivan Pictet. The Human Resources and Compensation Committee is chaired by Roger Manning. Victor Vladimirovich Blazheev and Richard Matske decide questions with him.

The corporate secretary of PJSC Lukoil, Natalya Igorevna Podolskaya, coordinates the actions of the company's management. She is also responsible for communication and interaction between the Board of Directors, shareholders and executive management. Under the supervision of the secretary, it is guaranteed that the officials and management of the company comply with all procedural requirements that ensure the implementation of the interests and rights of each shareholder. The Corporate Secretary is appointed directly by Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov.

Single share

In 1995, a number of others were added to the structure of the joint-stock company: the Research Institute "Rostovneftekhimproekt", "Volgogradnefteproduktavtomatika" and six more oil companies from Nizhnevolzhsk, Perm, Kaliningrad, Astrakhan. This was both a blessing and a difficulty for Lukoil: five divisions of the company had their own shares, which independently traded on the stock market. Plus shares of the main holding. Exchange players preferred some papers, others did not. And processing plants, unlike mining ones, did not involve traders in the business. That's why they didn't have any deals.

When one company has such a wide variety of securities, interacting with investors and finding them is very difficult. Switching to a single share was a good idea. At that time, not a single oil company in Russia had yet decided on such transformations. Lukoil was the first. That is why this process was difficult and slow. The entire transition took two years.

blue chips

The term "blue chip" came to the stock markets from casino lovers. Where did such a name come from? The fact is that chips of exactly this color in the game are more expensive than the rest. Now this expression is used for securities or shares of the most reliable, liquid and large companies. These firms boast stable earnings and dividends. When a single share of Lukoil appeared on the stock market, it immediately received the highest interest from investors.

The state got the opportunity to profitably sell its shares. And Lukoil registered with the Commission on Exchanges and Securities (SEC) an application for issuing receipts of the first level on deposits, which were intended for sale in the US on the stock market. The Bank of New York agreed to act as depositary.

Long way

In 1996, the depositary notes of the company were included in the listings of the Berlin and At the same time, joint ventures LUKARCO, LUKAgip N.V (Italy) were created. Lukoil began to form its own tanker fleet, designed to operate in the Arctic Ocean. By 1999, it was fully commissioned. Russian specialists have been waiting for this for a long time.

In 1997, there was a huge disappointment in the amount of two billion tons of Iraqi oil and a very expensive contract broken due to the Kuwait conflict. That's not all. In 1998, there was a crisis with a rapid drop in oil prices throughout the world. The company's budget has been revised. Everything that was low-margin has stopped. But shares in domestic and foreign markets still fell, and more than 5 times.

The company continued to make acquisitions nonetheless. On the advice of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and AB IBG NIKoil, financiers, the KomiTEK company was bought, then immediately one hundred percent of the shares of Nobel Oil, then 50% of the shares of KomiArcticOil (by agreement with British Gas North Sea Holdings Limited) and so on - up to the present moment. Unless we can add that in 2004 Lukoil-USA managed to buy 779 Lukoil gas stations from ConocoPhilips located in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Rather, before the acquisition, all gas stations belonged to the Mobil brand, but were quickly transferred to a new brand name.

So who owns Lukoil?

This is what many Russians want to know. However, the president of PJSC Lukoil always answered evasively to this question. Alekperov said that there is no single shareholder controlling all processes. And he is not ready to discuss the package belonging to the managers. This continued for a long time, until the beginning of 2017.

Now Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov admitted that the main "strength" of the company is management. Although such a goal was not voiced, it was already possible to collect a controlling stake.

How was the largest private oil company in Russia, Lukoil, created? How did all these countless assets end up in the hands of Alekperov and his team? Why do members of this team enjoy truly royal immunity?

Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov looks, perhaps, the happiest and most sinless among the leaders and shareholders of private oil and gas companies in Russia. He did not have to develop projects in a competitive environment, did not have to fight for a place under the cold oil and gas sun in the harsh market reality - he received his company on a silver platter with such a blue border that one can only marvel.

Fast road to Kogalym

The portrait of fatherlessness (Alekperov's father died in the cold 1953, when the boy was three years old), which the biographers of the oligarch love to demonstrate, becomes somehow unconvincing if you look at further events. Apparently, Vagit did not serve in the army. The chronology of his official biography (work experience from the age of 22, graduated from the most prestigious institute of the republic at the age of 24) leaves a couple of years for repaying the debt to the Motherland, but that small part of our elite that actually served usually does not miss the opportunity to boast of this circumstance, from Alekperov no one heard the soldiers' tales. Digression: in general, Vagit Yusufovich respects the military very much, they say that about a third of LUKoil managers are former military personnel. Other things being equal, they will always hire a former officer, or at least a former officer - such people are less inclined to reason. For the right to argue in the current "Lukoil" is only one person.

The miracles that took place in Baku after Alekperov graduated from the institute, from 1974 to 1979, have not yet been deciphered by science. An ordinary oil and gas production operator changed several positions in less than six years and, in less than 30 years, became the deputy head of the local oil field. There are almost no such quarries even now, and even more so in Soviet times.

But these were just positions, salary and respect. And Vagit Yusufovich took the acceleration on the path to glory in 1979, when he, a young communist and an unusually talented specialist, was sent from warm Baku to develop West Siberian deposits. He ended up at Surgutneftegaz, where he also moved up the ranks extremely quickly. In 1983, Alekperov moved to Kogalym, where he became the head of the local oil and gas production department, that is, the actual owner of the monotown. Since 1987, he has been the general director of the production association Kogalymneft.

Boring? Oh no, in those years it was not boring at all. It was in Kogalym that Alekperov made acquaintances, which a little later would allow him to take off on the crest of an oil wave. Here we should mention Alexander Putilov, who headed Urayneftegaz, Yuri Shafranik, the king of Langepasneftegaz, as well as the enterprising Gennady Bogomolov, who will be discussed below.

No Union - no property

In January 1990, the career of a still fairly young manager entered a new round - he became the youngest deputy minister of the USSR and the youngest official in such a position in the history of the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry. A year later - the first deputy minister. And, unlike other allied departments, powerless in front of the newly formed Russian and republican parallel structures, the oilmen of the USSR held their power firmly. It was the progressive-minded Deputy Minister Alekperov, who, having peeped the idea of ​​VIOCs from the Italians, proposed to implement it in Russia as well. VINK is a vertically integrated oil company, that is, it deals with the entire cycle - from geological exploration to retail sales of gasoline. Gazprom had already been created, and in anticipation of the advancing capitalism, the state should have taken care of the oil assets. The state company Rosneftegaz, the future Rosneft, was created in 1991, but, unlike Gazprom, it failed to keep the main assets in the ownership of the country. And the main reason for this was the energetic work of Vagit Alekperov.

A month before the legal death of the Soviet Union, its Council of Ministers sang its swan song - it turned out to be Decree No. 18 of November 25, 1991, according to which the richest oil producing and processing enterprises were united in VINK under the ear-sweet name "LangepasUrayKogalym-neft". Later, the first three letters of the key mining assets formed the well-known ONION, from any attempt to clean which both competitors and journalists invariably cried.

Even then Alekperov, under the patronage of his union minister Leonid Filimonov, actually controlled the enterprise. And although the official career of Vagit Yusufovich ended with the collapse of the USSR, his influence did not weaken, on the contrary.

At the end of 1992, President Boris Yeltsin signed the famous decree No. 1403 "On the specifics of the privatization and transformation into joint-stock companies of state enterprises, production and research and production associations of the oil, oil refining industry and oil products supply" - the fate of the state share in the oil industry was a foregone conclusion (with gas it didn’t work out that way - Viktor Chernomyrdin saved the industry from full privatization). And in early 1993, the solitaire finally took shape - Yuri Shafranik, a longtime ally of Alekperov, became the head of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy. And a black oil sun rose over the LUKoil empire.

But the asset had to be somehow taken away from state hands - Alekperov did not want to work as a hired manager in his fifth decade, he had already done this in Baku, the Tyumen villages and Kogalym.

Privatization and loans-for-shares auction

The privatization of Lukoil began in earnest in 1994. In 1995, by a government decree, LUKoil received controlling stakes in nine large enterprises operating in all parts of the production chain. At the same time, the shares of the new giant were placed through companies with good Russian names Paribas, CS First Boston and the like. In part, Alekperov and his team settled with the state with American IOUs, and in 1996 The Bank of New York announced that it was becoming a "trustee" of Lukoil in the process of issuing convertible bonds.

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

So it was LUKoil that became the pioneer of the infamous loans-for-shares auctions. “Our company itself is able to give the Russian government a certain amount of money on the security of its shares. At the same time, the government can buy back these shares from Lukoil at a convenient moment. We are not interested in the government completely abandoning its stake, ”LUKavil then the future main shareholder of the company. Then the next 5% of the state's oil shagreen skin passed into private hands (apparently affiliated with the management of Lukoil) for $35 million, less than a dollar per share.

For comparison, at the first stage of privatization, a share cost $6.1. But foreign companies were not allowed to the second. By comparison, 5% of the company is now worth $3.3 billion—nearly 100 times more. And one should not think that during this time LUKoil has grown a hundred times - there was simply a colossal underestimation, a colossal underpayment to the state, for which, in fact, loans-for-shares auctions were started. But Boris Yeltsin, who approved them, received unlimited support in the 1996 elections.

State interests were not taken into account in the process of privatization. Rather, the state interests of other countries were taken into account, but not Russia,

- said then the head of the Accounts Chamber Veniamin Sokolov.

You better not say. At that time, the American Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) became a strategic partner of LUKoil, and to a large extent the business of the largest player in the Russian oil market was controlled from overseas. Well, about his attitude to his homeland, whether it be Azerbaijan or Russia, Alekperov himself speaks unequivocally:.

Were these schemes corrupt? No, because there is no court decision condemning even the extreme forms of privatization of the 1990s. Were they honest and moral from a philistine point of view? Neither, because they were the embodiment of the principle of "pull every nail from work" on a truly cosmic scale.

Everyone lived like this

The life of the independent "Lukoil" in the nineties proceeded according to the laws of these same nineties. So, on numerous sites of black PR, the fiction that the Most group of Vladimir Gusinsky threw in 1998 is repeated - that the then head of government Viktor Chernomyrdin allegedly shelved a note by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Anatoly Kulikov, about the numerous connections of Lukoil with the criminal world. Anatoly Sergeevich resolutely denied to Tsargrad the existence of such a note.

A. Kulikov. Photo: gov-news.ru

It is more difficult with another accusation - in close contacts with Gennady Bogomolov, whom the media of that time called a thief in law, nicknamed Bogomol. This man really headed Lukoil-Market and actively defended his reputation from media suspicions. Nevertheless, he is confidently called "a tacit co-owner of LUKoil, convicted three times." They wrote about disagreements between friends back in 2001, but they parted later.

How things were done around LUKoil is clearly seen from the investigation into the kidnapping of LUKoil Vice President Sergei Kukura - this long detective story is characterized by the fact that the kidnapped manager got away with it, but the organizer of his kidnapping was shot dead. By the way, Bogomolov also plays an important role there, who preferred to negotiate with the kidnappers without going to the police.

Now Gennady Semyonovich is the president of the board of directors of Agriko LLC. “No offshore, gray schemes and fictitious entrepreneurship,” colleagues cheerfully write about a company 100% owned by the Dutch Martiniko Beheer I B.V. By the way, something, but these people love to read touching materials about themselves. So the rest of the once mighty "Russian Planet" published an enthusiastic panegyric to Alekperov to the point of implausibility. The author even got confused at what exact age young Vagit supplied a large family with fish - at first it was at five or six years old, and then at four years old. And then - an impeccable biography of the great monogamous, a worker from God, the creator of a great company.

Let's get back from panegyrics to reality. Separately, it is pleasing that all these complex manipulations with the withdrawal of LUKoil from the control of the Russian Federation were carried out, it seems ... by a citizen of independent Estonia. In 2002, it became known that the Estonian government intended to take away the passport from the Azerbaijani-Russian tycoon, because he received it, possibly on forged documents. They write that Alekperov became an Estonian, since his mother, who in all biographies passes as a Cossack Tatyana Bocharova, once had Estonian citizenship. And at some point, the authorities of the Baltic country doubted this. The further fate of Alekperov's European passport is unknown.

New time - new entertainment

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Unfortunately, the right to property is automatically accompanied by the obligation to pay taxes. She was interpreted quite freely in Lukoil. So, in April 2002, the Accounts Chamber revealed violations in the payment of excise taxes for 2000 and 2001 by Nizhny Novgorod-Nefteorgsintez and Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez, which were part of the LUKoil system. It was about billions, but the Ministry of Taxes and Duties was not interested in these documents. In 2003, the Nizhny Novgorod region complained about the shortfall of two billion rubles from excises and the monopolist's inflated prices for gasoline. To no avail.

Although, of course, life changed in the 2000s. Social responsibility has replaced detective showdowns. Thus, the owners of large stakes in LUKoil took on an important mission - the development of FC Spartak (Moscow), perhaps the most popular sports club in Russia. In 2004, the vice-president of LUKoil, Leonid Fedun, was believed to have acquired the team, and ... in general, it was difficult to call it development, Spartak, spoiled by victories, fell into an unprecedented trophy drought. Only in 2019 did it become clear that although Fedun has always been the face of Spartak, Alekperov's share is actually larger. For some reason, colossal ownership chains have been created there with a significant offshore part (no one should know who owns the "narcokomanda"), which is crowned by Sport-Holding LLC and Capital Assets JSC, which control the legendary football club.

L. Fedun. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

For 12 years before LUKoil, Spartak was the champion of Russia nine times, in 15 years with LUKoil - once. But people are busy doing what they love.

Do you refuel at Lukoil?

A dirty story that happened in 2010 added some color to the bright image of Lukoil. At the end of February, Anatoly Barkov, vice-president of Lukoil, who was extremely in a hurry on his Alekperov affairs, got into an accident on Leninsky Prospekt in his S-class Mercedes - he collided with an oncoming Citroën C3. The Citroen driver died on the spot, her passenger, Doctor of Medical Sciences Vera Sidelnikova, died in intensive care. Mr. Barkov received minor injuries. The criminal case was not opened for a long time, the video recordings disappeared, and the Citroen woman was found guilty. As you can see, LUKoil has huge opportunities to influence the investigation. After all, even when a video was leaked to the Web, where Barkov's Mercedes frankly drives along the median strip and seeks to meet the oncoming lane, when President Dmitry Medvedev personally instructed to objectively understand the story, nothing was done. The case was closed only in 2013, the dead woman remained guilty, and the driver of the Mercedes was not even deprived of her license.

Video of the Barkov accident from surveillance cameras

It is interesting that the slogan “I don’t refuel at Lukoil” appeared a year and a half earlier than this sad event. It was invented back in the summer of 2008 by Spartak fans from the Fratria group, just outraged by the five-year period without trophies (the poor fellows would know how much more they could endure). And after the events of February 25, 2010, this slogan was intercepted by ordinary motorists.

A normal human decision on the part of Mr. Alekperov would be a public admission of guilt by the driver Barkov, his resignation and payment of compensation to the victims. He did none of this. Barkov retired honorably three and a half years later. And the tradition of Lukoil races is the son of another vice-president, Azat Shamsuarov.

An unprecedented career take-off on fuel unknown to science. Privatization of an enterprise entrusted by the state with the help of Americans for ridiculous money. Extremely dubious partners. Easy attitude to taxes. All this with an Estonian passport in your pocket. This is how Lukoil rose.

V. Alekperov. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

In general, there are an incredible number of big and small scandals - from the tax hole in 1997 to attempts to buy up the land of "Massandra" in 2016, there will not be enough Runet volumes to list everything in detail. But the result is impressive: Vagit Alekperov's fortune is estimated at more than $20 billion, he is the fourth richest man in Russia (Forbes, 2019) and has unofficial immunity from any persecution.

All this would be decidedly impossible if the institution of reputation operated in our state and business community. We are very kind people and easily let go of small sins to good friends. Moreover, a full member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (why are these guys all as one trying to pass for great scientists?) Is actively involved in charity work and even intends to bequeath his considerable share of LUKoil not to children, but to a charitable foundation.

How can you disrespect such a person?