Russian Billionaire Alekperov Resigns As Lukoil CEO Amid Sanctions Over Ukraine

Topline

Russian billionaire Vagit Alekperov stepped down as CEO of Russia’s second-largest oil company, Lukoil, the company said on Thursday, days after the U.K. and the EU sanctioned the former Soviet oil minister and other Russian oligarchs.

President of the Russian oil company Lukoil Vagit Alekperov attends the Russian Energy Week … [+] International Forum in Moscow, Russia on October 03, 2019. (Photo by Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Key Facts

Lukoil said in a statement Alekperov also resigned from the company’s board, though the company did not give a reason for the resignation or who would take over.

Reuters reports Alekperov decided to resign after he was sanctioned so he would not affect the company’s operations, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter.

Alekperov, the former deputy minister of oil and gas of the Soviet Union, had been CEO of Lukoil since 1993, when the company was founded.

Several Russian businessmen have resigned or handed control of their companies after being sanctioned in recent weeks amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Big Number

$18.6 billion. That’s how much Alekperov is worth, according to Forbes’ real-time net worth tracker, falling from about $24.9 billion last year.

Key Background

Australia was the first country to sanction Alekperov on April 8. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced the sanctions, which targeted 67 Russians who she said “facilitate and support [Putin’s]

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What To Watch For

What happens next for Lukoil without Alekperov. Thane Gustafson, a professor at Georgetown Law and an expert on Russian politics and energy, told Forbes Lukoil is “very much a personal creation of Alekperov from the beginning, and consequently he really embodies the soul and the substance of Lukoil.” A source who is an expert on the Russian oil and gas industry added Alekperov’s plans for retirement were probably “thrown into some amount of doubt” by the sanctions. “If he was thinking, ‘I’ll sell all this, get the cash and go live in the south of France,’ that’s pretty much off the table,” the source told Forbes.

Crucial Quote

Lukoil became one of the first Russian companies to speak out against the war in Ukraine in early March, and called for the termination of the conflict. “We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy,” the company’s board of directors said in a statement.

Surprising Fact

Alekperov owns one of the largest superyacht builders in the Netherlands: Heesen Yachts. Heesen has built two yachts for Alekperov, including the 230-foot Galactica Super Nova, worth about $67 million, and the 114-foot Space, previously known as the Galactica Plus. The Galactica Super Nova has been idling off the coast of Montenegro for nearly two months, possibly to avoid eventually being seized.