Vagit Alekperov: Lukoil Founder, His 2022 Resignation and the Sanctions Against Him

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Luxury SUV parked beside yachts in a marina

Photo: Viktor Ritsvall, Unsplash License, via Unsplash

Sanctions status — checked 18 October 2026

Listed by: UK (OFSI)

This person appears on the sanctions lists named above. Other countries are covered in the sanctions section below. Date of birth used for identification: 1950-09-01. Checked against the OFAC SDN list, the UK OFSI consolidated list and the EU consolidated list. Sanctions lists change without notice — verify against the primary source before relying on this.

Current figure: Forbes puts Vagit Alekperov’s net worth at $29.5 billion as of 18 October 2026 (Forbes profile). Estimates are revised continuously and Forbes and Bloomberg frequently disagree.

Vagit Alekperov is a Soviet-trained oil engineer and former deputy oil minister who built Lukoil into Russia’s largest private oil company and ran it as president from 1993 until April 2022. He resigned eight days after the United Kingdom sanctioned him, but remains Lukoil’s main shareholder. The UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand list him; the United States, the European Union and Switzerland do not.

  • Born: 1 September 1950 in Baku, Azerbaijan, then part of the Soviet Union (BFM.ru, World Oil); the UK sanctions list gives 9 January 1950
  • Education: Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry, graduated 1974
  • Known for: founder of Lukoil, its president from 1993 to 2022 and its main shareholder
  • Sanctions as of October 2026: United Kingdom (since 13 April 2022), Australia (since April 2022), Canada (since 3 May 2022), New Zealand (since 12 October 2022); not listed by the United States, the European Union, Switzerland or Ukraine

From the Caspian oil fields to the Soviet ministry

Alekperov was born on 1 September 1950 in Baku. Lukoil marked his 70th birthday on 1 September 2020, and Russian and industry sources give the same date (Lukoil, 1 September 2020, Lenta.ru, BFM.ru, World Oil, May 2022). New Zealand’s sanctions register and Australia’s consolidated list also give 1 September 1950; the UK list gives “09/01/1950”, which in its day-month format reads 9 January (New Zealand Russia Sanctions Register, Australian Sanctions Consolidated List, 7 October 2026, UK sanctions list). He graduated from the Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry in 1974 after evening studies (BFM.ru, Lenta.ru, Forbes).

From 1972 he worked for the Kaspmorneft association on the Caspian Sea, at first as a driller; Forbes calls him “a former Caspian Sea oil rig worker”. In October 1979 he moved to western Siberia, where he held management posts in the Surgutneftegaz association and later ran the Kogalymneftegaz association (BFM.ru, Lenta.ru, Forbes). From 1990 he was deputy minister and then first deputy minister of the Soviet Union’s oil and gas industry; the sources give slightly different years for the two posts (BFM.ru, Lenta.ru, Delovoy Peterburg, citing Forbes Russia, 28 September 2026).

Lukoil

In November 1991 the state concern Langepas-Uray-Kogalymneft was created from three oil production associations, a processing company and two refineries; Lukoil’s name stands for Langepas, Uray and Kogalym. Alekperov initiated it and headed it from 1992. On 5 April 1993 it was converted into a joint-stock company, the Oil Company LUKOIL, and Alekperov became its president (BFM.ru, World Oil, May 2022, Lukoil company history). In 2000 Lukoil agreed to buy the US fuel retailer Getty Petroleum Marketing, which the company called “the first acquisition of a publicly held American company by a Russian corporation” (Lukoil, 3 November 2000). In 2007 Alekperov initiated the Regional Social Programmes Fund “Our Future”, which supports social entrepreneurship in Russia (Prime, 26 June 2026).

Resignation in 2022 and his stake today

On 3 March 2022 Lukoil’s board of directors, of which Alekperov was a member, published a statement on the war in Ukraine, “calling for the soonest termination of the armed conflict” (Lukoil, 3 March 2022). On 21 April 2022, eight days after the UK sanctioned him, Lukoil announced that he had decided to resign from the board and to step down early as president (Lukoil, 21 April 2022, Interfax, 21 April 2022, Bloomberg via World Oil, 21 April 2022). The next day the board appointed first executive vice president Vadim Vorobyev as interim president, and on 30 May 2022 the shareholders elected Vorobyev president (Lukoil, 22 April 2022, Interfax, 31 May 2022). No source since 2025 names a formal post for Alekperov at Lukoil.

In its resignation statement Lukoil said that as of 31 March 2022 Alekperov owned and voted 3.12 percent of its shares and was the beneficiary, including through family trusts or mutual funds, of a further 5.43 percent without voting rights. “Therefore, Vagit Alekperov is not a controlling shareholder of PJSC LUKOIL,” the company said (Lukoil, 21 April 2022). Interfax, citing Lukoil’s latest Eurobond prospectus, reported that he was the direct or indirect owner or beneficiary of 28.33 percent of the share capital as of 30 September 2021 (Interfax, 21 April 2022). Reporting Forbes Russia’s dividend ranking in September 2026, Delovoy Peterburg described him as Lukoil’s main shareholder with 28.3 percent, most of it controlled through closed-end mutual funds and about 3 percent held directly; Forbes puts his stake at about 30 percent (Delovoy Peterburg, citing Forbes Russia, 28 September 2026, Forbes).

Alekperov was also the ultimate beneficial owner of the Dutch superyacht builder Heesen Yachts. After the UK sanction, Heesen transferred its shares to an independent Dutch foundation in May 2022; in April 2025 the Dutch investor Laurens Last bought the shipyard (Marine Industry News, 20 May 2022, SWZ Maritime, 7 April 2025, Forbes).

Sanctions

CountryListedStatus in October 2026
United Kingdom13 April 2022Listed (RUS1334)
AustraliaApril 2022Listed (Australian consolidated list)
Canada3 May 2022Listed (Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations, item 744)
New Zealand12 October 2022Listed (IND-757)
United StatesnoNot listed; his son Yusuf since 10 January 2025, Lukoil since 22 October 2025
European UnionnoNot listed; removed from a draft package in July 2026
SwitzerlandnoNot listed (SECO sanctions list)
UkrainenoNot in the annex to Decree 727/2022; his wife and son are

The UK designated Alekperov on 13 April 2022. Its statement of reasons, written while he still ran the company, says that he “is President and CEO and an executive member of the Board of Directors of Lukoil, Russia’s second largest oil producer” and that through this directorship he obtains a benefit from or supports the Russian government in the energy sector. The entry was last updated in April 2025 (UK sanctions list, Interfax, 21 April 2022). Australia had added him to its list a few days earlier, by an instrument dated 7 April 2022; its consolidated list still describes him as “President and CEO of LUKOIL” (Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (No. 11) Instrument 2022, Australian Sanctions Consolidated List, 7 October 2026, Interfax, 8 April 2022, Bloomberg via World Oil). Canada listed him on 3 May 2022 (Canada’s consolidated sanctions list), and New Zealand on 12 October 2022 as “Former President and former CEO Lukoil”, on the general ground that he is a person of strategic or economic significance to Russia (New Zealand Russia Sanctions Register, Interfax, 11 October 2022).

The United States has not listed Alekperov himself. On 10 January 2025 the Treasury designated his son Yusuf Alekperov, whom it described as “the founder and owner of Russian oilfield services company Limited Liability Company Welltech” (US Treasury, 10 January 2025, Interfax, 10 January 2025). On 22 October 2025 the Treasury designated Lukoil and Rosneft as companies (US Treasury, 22 October 2025). Ukraine’s sanctions decision of 19 October 2022 lists his wife Larisa Alekperova and his son Yusuf, but not him (annex to Decree 727/2022); we found no other Ukrainian decree that names him.

The EU has not listed Alekperov. In July 2026 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and European Pravda reported, citing EU officials and diplomats, that his name and that of Patriarch Kirill had been removed from the draft of the EU’s 21st sanctions package at Bulgaria’s request. Bulgaria’s foreign minister Velislava Petrova said on 13 July 2026: “Bulgaria’s reservations were taken into account, and these two individuals are no longer in the proposed package, so for our part we are ready to support it.” (RFE/RL via Oilprice.com, 13 July 2026, Ukrainska Pravda, 12 July 2026, Ukrainska Pravda, 13 July 2026). We checked the US, UK and Canadian lists as of 8 October 2026, the Swiss list as of 5 October 2026, New Zealand’s register and Poland’s national list as of 11 October 2026, Australia’s consolidated list as of 7 October 2026 and the EU list as of its review of 22 September 2026. We could not check Japan’s list. We found no record of a criminal case against Alekperov.

About this profile

This profile was rewritten in October 2026. The 2022 version described Alekperov as Lukoil’s current president and CEO and as its controlling shareholder since 1993, which Lukoil itself contradicted in 2022. It also claimed that he studied at a Leningrad finance institute, began his career at a research institute and at “KomiMekhanneftgaz”, became deputy minister in 1988, sits on the boards of Sibur and Bank Rossiya, owns a 500-foot yacht, a fleet of private jets, a private island and homes in London and New York, and has three children with a wife named Zumrud and six more from earlier marriages. We found no source for any of these statements, and they have been removed. The net worth figure in the box at the top of this page comes from Forbes and carries its date.

Sources

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