Vagit Alekperov

Vagit Alekperov
Image	; Vagit Alekperov
Born	1950 Baku, Azerbaijan
Nationality	Russia
Occupation	Oil executive
Known for	Founder and long-time president of Lukoil
Education	Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry

Russian oil executive; co-founder and former president of Lukoil; sanctioned by the UK in 2022

Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov (born 1950) is a Russian oil executive who set up Lukoil in 1991 and served as its president until April 2022. That month he resigned as president and as a director, days after the United Kingdom imposed an asset freeze and travel ban on him.^[1]^[2]^[3] He was earlier a deputy oil minister of the Soviet Union.^[4] In October 2025 the US Treasury designated Lukoil itself.^[5] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Vagit Alekperov 78th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$29.48 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as Oil.^[1]^[6] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Vagit Alekperov 81st, at US$29.5 billion.^[7]

Early life and education

The Guardian reports that Alekperov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan. Forbes gives his birth year as 1950 and lists an engineering degree from the Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry.^[4]^[1]

Career

According to Forbes and the Guardian, Alekperov began as an oil-rig worker in the Caspian Sea and rose to become a deputy minister for the oil and gas industry in the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union broke up, he took control of three large state-controlled oil fields and founded Lukoil in 1991. The Guardian describes Lukoil as Russia's second-largest oil company after Rosneft, and the largest that is not state-owned.^[1]^[4]

On 21 April 2022 Lukoil announced that he had decided to resign as a member of its board of directors and to step down early as president.^[2] The next day the board named first executive vice-president Vadim Vorobyev as temporary president, and Alekperov also gave up the chairmanship of the management board.^[8] Forbes reports that Alekperov wrote a book called Oil of Russia: Past, Present and Future.^[1]

Lukoil shareholding

In its April 2022 statement, Lukoil said that on 31 March 2022 Alekperov owned and voted 3.12% of its shares. He was also a beneficiary, including through family trusts or mutual funds, of a further 5.43%, over which he had no voting rights. On that basis the company said he was not a controlling shareholder.^[2] The UK government described him as a minority shareholder, and the Guardian reported an 8.5% equity stake worth £3 billion before Lukoil's London shares were suspended.^[3]^[4] By contrast, Forbes's current profile says he owns about 30% of Lukoil (see the source conflict noted in the verification report).^[1]

Sanctions

On 13 April 2022 the UK government imposed a travel ban and an asset freeze on Alekperov. It described him as president and a minority shareholder of Lukoil and gave his reported net worth as about £18 billion.^[3] The Guardian reported that Australia had also sanctioned him, and that Lukoil itself was not under sanctions at the time.^[4]

Forbes notes that Lukoil was hit by US sanctions in September 2014.^[1] On 22 October 2025 the US Treasury designated Lukoil and Rosneft, Russia's two largest oil companies, for operating in the Russian energy sector.^[5] OFAC later issued a general licence allowing negotiations on the sale of Lukoil International GmbH, the subsidiary that holds the group's foreign assets.^[9] On 29 January 2026 Lukoil said it had signed a non-exclusive agreement to sell that subsidiary to the US investment firm Carlyle, excluding its assets in Kazakhstan. The deal needed OFAC's permission, and Lukoil said it was still negotiating with other potential buyers.^[10]

Wealth

Forbes gives oil as the source of his wealth.^[1]^[6] Forbes also reports that in 2022 he transferred his ownership of the Dutch shipyard Heesen Yachts, which built his yacht Galactica Super Nova, to a Dutch foundation.^[1]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 26 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2001. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.^[7]^[1]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)
2001	387	1.3
2002	327	1.4
2003	329	1.3
2004	186	2.7
2005	122	4.3
2006	37	11.0
2007	48	12.4
2008	56	13.0
2009	57	7.8
2010	58	10.6
2011	50	13.9
2012	56	13.5
2013	55	14.8
2014	76	13.6
2015	96	12.2
2016	124	8.9
2017	74	14.5
2018	78	16.4
2019	47	20.7
2020	65	15.2
2021	66	24.9
2022	188	10.5
2023	80	20.5
2024	59	28.6
2025	62	28.7
2026	81	29.5

Philanthropy

No documented philanthropy by Alekperov was found in the sources checked. Forbes reports that he collects old coins and opened an International Numismatic Club in Moscow, where his collection is exhibited.^[1]

Political activity

The Guardian describes him as on good terms with Vladimir Putin. It reports that he was among the business leaders summoned to the Kremlin in late February 2022, in the days before the invasion of Ukraine.^[4] No party donations, elected offices or lobbying registrations by him were found in the sources checked.

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."