Lukoil

Vagit Alekperov, CEO and founder of Lukoil

"Langepas, Uray, and Kogalym" oil (Lukoil) was established by the USSR Council of Ministers Decree No. 18 on November 25, 1991 as a state-owned enterprise. In the new company, three oil production companies, Langepasneftegaz, Uraineftegaz, and Kogalymneftegaz, processing company Permnefteorgsintez, and the Volgograd and Novosibirsk refineries, were merged (the latter soon came under the control of the authorities of Bashkortostan).[10]

The central figure in the company's founding was the Soviet deputy minister of oil production Vagit Alekperov.[10] He came to believe the only way Russians could compete against western companies was to copy their business model. That meant vertically integrating the three branches of the industry—exploration, refining, and distribution—that were strictly separate under the old Soviet system.[8]

On April 5, 1993, Lukoil transformed itself from a state-owned enterprise to a private open joint-stock company based on Presidential Decree No. 1403 of November 17, 1992. The Decree also applied to other state-owned oil companies as well.

In 1994, Lukoil became the first company to begin offering shares of stock on the new Russian Trading System.[10]

In 1995, Lukoil controlled the stakes of nine oil-producing, marketing and service enterprises in Western Siberia, the Urals, and Volgograd Oblast in order to abide by Government Decree No. 861 of September 1, 1995.[11] In the same year, a 5% stake of Lukoil was sold by the state with a minimum excess of the starting price in an auction.[12] In November 1995, Lukoil filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to issue American depositary receipts on Western stock markets. This allowed United States investors for the first time, to be able to buy shares in a Russian company.[13]

In 1996, Lukoil started contributing to the Shah Deniz natural gas project, and started to build its own tanker fleet as well.

In 1997, Lukoil signed a contract with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil for the development and production of the second stage of the West Qurna-2 oil field. After Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown, the project was suspended and later terminated.[14]

In 1999, Lukoil acquired numerous enterprises such as the Odessa Oil Refinery in Ukraine, the Burgas Oil Refinery in Bulgaria, and KomiTEK.[11]

A Lukoil station in Vails Gate, New York, USA

In 2000, Lukoil acquired American oil company Getty Oil, resulting in the control of a network of gas stations in the United States as well as the first time Lukoil enters the American oil market.[11]

In September 2004, ConocoPhillips purchased a 7.6% stake in Lukoil for about $2 billion. According to some commentators, the sale of this deal was planned before in a personal meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and ConocoPhillips' president and CEO, James Mulva. After the auction, Lukoil and ConocoPhillips announced the creation of a strategic alliance. Later, the American company increased its stake to 20% in Lukoil and sold to the Russian company part of its network of gas stations in the United States and Western Europe. The two oil companies also agreed to jointly develop an oil and gas field in the northern Timan-Pechora area of Russia (Komi Republic) and intended to secure the rights to develop the West Qurna Field in Iraq, one of the country's largest.[15][16]

Uzbekistan's deputy prime minister Ergash Shaismatov announced on 30 August 2006 that the Uzbek government and an international consortium consisting of state-run Uzbekneftegaz, Lukoil Overseas, Petronas, Korea National Oil Corporation, and China National Petroleum Corporation signed a production sharing agreement to explore and develop oil and gas fields in the Aral Sea, stating "The Aral Sea is largely unknown, but it holds a lot of promise in terms of finding oil and gas. There is risk of course but we believe in the success of this unique project".[17] In December 2006, Lukoil announced the acquisition of 376 filling stations in six European countries: Belgium, Czechia, Finland, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, form ConocoPhillips.[18]

In 2007, Lukoil established a joint-venture with Gazprom and in 2008, established a joint-venture as well with Italian oil company ERG S.p.A..[11] In 2009, Lukoil and Norwegian oil company Statoil won a tender offer for the development of the West Qurna Field in Iraq. However, in early 2012, Statoil withdrew from the project, resulting in Lukoil consolidating 75% of development of the oil field.[11][14]

From 2010 to February 2011, ConocoPhillips sold its whole 20% stake in Lukoil due to its difficult financial situation.[19][20]

In September 2012, Lukoil created a shared service centre in the Czech Republic to provide accounting services to its subsidiaries in Belgium, Poland, and Bulgaria.[21] In December 2012, Lukoil bought the Imilor field for ₽50.8 billion in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug to explore and develop the hydrocarbon deposits located there.[22]

In February 2013, Lukoil sold the Odessa Oil Refinery to the Ukrainian "East European Fuel and Energy Company" (VETEK). For Lukoil, the oil refinery was unprofitable when production was stopped as early as October 2010 and the refinery finally closed in the summer of 2013.[23] In April 2013, Lukoil agreed to buy Hess Corporation's Russian unit for $2.05 billion.[24]

In 2014, the company faced a sharp decline in retail sales in Ukraine by 42%, caused by Russian intervention in Ukraine. As a result, the management of Lukoil has agreed to sell a 100% its subsidiary Lukoil Ukraine to the Austrian company AMIC Energy Management, which was announced at the end of July 2014.[25][26]

In 2014, Lukoil sold its service stations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.[27]

In 2015, it sold its service stations in Estonia and Ukraine, and in 2016, it sold its service stations in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Cyprus.[28][29][30]

The company's proved hydrocarbon reserves as of January 1, 2011 amounted to 17.255 billion barrels of oil equivalent, including 13.319 billion barrels of petroleum and 0.67 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. In terms of proved oil reserves, Lukoil, according to its own information, was the sixth-largest private oil company in the world at the time.[31][32]

In addition, probable hydrocarbon reserves as of January 1, 2011 were 8.46 billion barrels of oil equivalent (including oil 6.47 billion barrels of petroleum and 0.34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas). Possible reserves were 3.17 billion barrels of oil equivalent (including 2.78 billion barrels of petroleum and 65.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas).[31]

More than half of Lukoil's oil reserves are concentrated in Western Siberia. Its main production operator is Lukoil-Western Siberia located in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. About half of the natural gas reserves are located in the deposits located on the Gyda Peninsula in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

The operating fund of oil wells of Lukoil on October 1, 2005 was 26 626 wells, the idle fund - 4532 or 17% of the operating one. As compared to the beginning of 2005, the operating fund increased by 124 wells, and the non-operating fund decreased by 209 wells. The operating fund of injection wells was 8079 as of October 1, 2005 (133 wells more than at the end of 2004), the operating fund - 6238 wells (263 wells more than at the end of 2004).

On July 1, 2005, Lukoil and ConocoPhillips created a joint-venture "Naryanmarneftegaz" to develop oil and gas deposits in the Timan-Pechora Basin in the north of the European Russia. Lukoil's share in the joint venture is 70%, while ConocoPhillips' share is 30%.

In December 2011, Lukoil established a joint venture with Bashneft to develop the Trebs and Titov oil fields. Total recoverable reserves and oil resources from these fields are 89.73 million tons in C1 category, 50.33 million tons in C2 category and 59.29 million tons in category C3.[33][34][35]

The operator of Lukoil's foreign projects in the exploration and production sector is its subsidiary, Lukoil Overseas.

Lukoil is involved in the implementation of 16 projects for the exploration and development of structures and deposits in the following countries:

• Azerbaijan (D-222 (Yalama), Shah-Deniz)
• Kazakhstan (Tengiz, Karachaganak, Kumkol, Karakuduk, Northern Buzachi, Alibekmola, Kozhasai, Arman, Zhambai South, Atash, Tyub-Karagan);
• Uzbekistan (Kandym-Khauzak-Shady-Kungrad, Aral, Kungrad, South-West Gissar)
• Egypt (Meleiha, West Esh-El-Mallah, West Geisum, Northeast Geisum)[36]
• Iraq (West Qurna-2)
• Iran (Anaran);
• Colombia (the Condor project in conjunction with the Colombian state company Ecopetrol)
• Ivory Coast (production sharing agreement on the offshore block CI-205 in the Gulf of Guinea)
• Venezuela (Junin Block 3)
• Saudi Arabia
• Ghana (Cape Three Points Deepwater)
• Romania
• Cameroon (Etinde floating LNG project)[37]

The extraction of hydrocarbons from all the above projects is carried out only in Kazakhstan (5.5 million tons of oil and 1.9 billion cubic meters in 2006) and Egypt (0.2 million tons).

Lukoil refinery in Perm

Lukoil owns seven oil-processing companies in Eastern Europe with total capacity of 82.1 million tons per year. In Russia it owns large refineries in Volgograd, Perm, Nizhny Novgorod, and Ukhta refineries and mini-refineries in Uray and Kogalym. It also owns refineries in Bulgaria, Romania, and Italy, and has a 45%-stake in an oil refining complex in the Netherlands.[38] The company is also in talks to reconstruct Sonara refinery plant in Cameroon, which belongs to Cameroon's national refining company, Sonara.[39]

Country	Name	Location	Launched	Acquired	Capacity, mln tpa
	Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez	Kstovo	1958	2000	15.0
	Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez	Perm	1958	1991	12.0
	Lukoil-Volgogradneftepererabotka	Volgograd	1957	1991	9.9
	Lukoil-Ukhtaneftepererabotka	Ukhta	1934	2000	3.7
	Lukoil Neftochim Burgas	Burgas	1964	1999	7.5
	Petrotel Lukoil Refinery	Ploieşti	1904	1998	2.4
	ISAB	Priolo Gargallo	1975	2008*	16.0
	TRN	Vlissingen	1973	2009*	7.9*

* – 49% and 45% shares respectively

The company also owns Korobkovsky, Usinsky, Perm, and Lokosovsky gas processing plants as well as several petrochemical plants in Budennovsk, Saratov and Kalush, Ukraine, all managed by Lukoil-Neftechim. In 1999–2013 it owned the Odessa Oil Refinery (3.6 mln tpa) which it sold to VETEK of Serhiy Kurchenko.

In 2007, the refinery processed 52,164 thousand tons of oil, including 42,548 thousand tons at Russian plants. In 2005, the gas refining plants of the company processed 2,261 million cubic meters of gas raw materials and 479,000 tons of a wide fraction of light hydrocarbons.

Speaking at a press conference in New York on October 18, 2006, the company's CEO Vagit Alekperov said Lukoil is refusing to build a new refinery in Russia. According to him, "at this stage it is inexpedient and economically inefficient." At the same time, Lukoil planned to build a large complex in Kalmykia for the processing of natural gas from the North Caspian fields worth over $ 3 billion. The work was supposed to start in the spring of 2008. Also in March 2007, Lukoil announced it would expand the capacity in the Lukoil Neftochim Burgas refinery in Burgas, Bulgaria from 7.5 million tons to 10 million tons of oil per year.[40][41]

The Lukoil Neftochim Burgas refinery in Burgas, Bulgaria.

The subsidiary company Lukoil-Neftekhim specializes in petrochemistry, and operates the Stavrolen (Budyonnovsk), Saratovorgsintez, and the Karpatneftekhim (Kalush, Ukraine) petrochemical plants. Petrochemical facilities are also part of the Neftochim Burgas Combine in Bulgaria. "Lukoil" is the largest producer of alkene and acrylonitrile in Eastern Europe. Together with Sibur, Lukoil-Neftekhim owns a controlling stake in the Polief plant.

In 2005, Lukoil-Neftekhim's petrochemical enterprises produced 1.8 million tons of commercial products, including 402,000 tons of polyethylene and 128,000 tons of acrylic acid nitrile. In addition, 372.5 thousand tons of petrochemical products were produced at the Bulgarian oil refinery Lukoil Neftochim Burgas.

One of the most important petrochemical projects of Lukoil is the construction of the Caspian gas chemical complex. The complex would produce a wide range of petrochemical products, including products of basic organic synthesis, polyethylene, and polypropylene.

Transportation of oil produced by Lukoil in Russia is carried out for the most part by the pipelines of Transneft, as well as by rail and water transport. Oil produced at the company's fields in Kazakhstan is transported through pipelines such as the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.

Lukoil owns a number of oil and oil products terminals used for the export of oil and oil products:

• The terminal in Vysotsk port off of the Gulf of Finland with a capacity of 10.7 million tons of oil and oil products per year since 2006.
• The terminal near Varandey off of the Barents Sea with a capacity of 12.5 million tons of oil a year is used for shipment of oil produced in the Timan-Pechora Basin.[42]
• The terminal in the port of Svetly, Kaliningrad Oblast, off of the Baltic Sea with a capacity of 6 million tons of oil and oil products.
• The terminal "Astrakhan" in the village of Ilyinka in the Astrakhan Oblast with a capacity of 2 million tons of oil and oil products.

A Lukoil gas station in North Macedonia

Lukoil sells petrol in 59 regions of Russia and in 17 other countries, both CIS and Western: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium (through its subsidiary Jet until late 2008, since rebranded to Lukoil), Bulgaria, Croatia (operated by Lukoil Croatia, but under the brand name "Europa-Mil"), Finland (Teboil), Georgia, Italy, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and the United States. As of January 2014, it had 166 tank farms and 5,867 filling stations.[43]

Retail sale of oil products is carried out for the most part under the trademark Lukoil. In the US, part of the company's filling stations operate under the trademark Mobil and formerly under the Getty trademark.

Lukoil has the aggregate power generation capacity of 5,800 MW, of which 73% is for commercial use. Lukoil generates about 99% of electrical power of the Astrakhan Oblast and 62% of the Krasnodar Krai. Its main power generation subsidiaries are Lukoil-Volgogradenergo, Lukoil-Rostovenergo, Luikoil-Kubanenergo, Lukoil-Astrakhanenergo, and Lukoil-Stavropolenergo.[44]

Lukoil operates two solar power plants at its own refineries in Romania and Bulgaria with respective capacity of 9 MW and 1.3 MW.[44] A 10-MW solar plant is under construction at the Volgograd Refinery.[45] It also owns an 84-MW wind farm in Topolog, Romania.[46]

Mikhail Aleshin driving Lukoil sponsored car in Formula Renault 3.5 Series

Lukoil has been titular sponsor of FC Spartak Moscow since 2000.[47] The company's vice president, Leonid Fedun, is also the owner of the club since 2003. Since 2001, the company has been sponsoring the Children's Football League. In addition, the company sponsors a number of regional Russian teams in various sports.

In particular, the company sponsors the Volgograd water polo club "Lukoil-Spartak". Lukoil also sponsors the Russian Olympic Committee and is one of the founders of the Russian Olympians Support Fund. In February 2014, Lukoil signed an agreement with the government of Arkhangelsk Oblast about supporting Vodnik.[48] Vodnik was the dominant force of Russian bandy for a decade, starting in the mid-1990s.

Lukoil has been involved in motorsports for more than ten years. The Lukoil Racing team is a leading Russian motorsport organization and has achieved notable successes both in Russia and in Europe, winning more than 60 championships over the years.. Lukoil's operations include management, driver training and support, engineering expertise and a quality technical environment.

In addition to Russia, Lukoil sponsors various sports teams in all countries where it operates. The company sponsors the football club FC Rapid București of Romania, the football club FC Zimbru Chișinău of Moldova, the National Federation of Motorsport of Ukraine, and the men's basketball club Lukoil-Akademik, the women's Lukoil-Neftohimik, the volleyball, acrobatic clubs and club of the same name rowing, as well as the club of martial arts "Lukoil-Ikken" of Bulgaria.

In July 2010, the top managers of the company owned the largest stake (more than 30%) of the company's shares: CEO Vagit Alekperov owning 20.6% and vice-president Leonid Fedun owning 9.8%. The American oil company ConocoPhillips owned 19.21% but due to financial difficulties, completely withdrew from the shareholders of Lukoil, selling its shares, and in part to Lukoil itself by February 2011. The remaining shares were freely traded on the London Stock Exchange, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Russian Trading System, and the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. Market capitalization of the company was $60.4 billion as of June 2018.

• 1993–present: Vagit Alekperov

List of directors that were elected on June 21, 2018:[49]

• Valery Grayfer - Chairman of Board
• Vagit Alekperov - CEO[50]
• Valery Grayfer
• Ravil Maganov
• Victor Blazheev
• Igor Ivanov
• Roger Munnings
• Toby Gati
• Richard Matzke
• Ivan Pictet
• Lyubov Khoba
• Leonid Fedun

A Lukoil gas station in Tula, Russia

The company "Lukoil" owns controlling stakes or otherwise controls the following main organizations:

On one of the storage ponds of JSC "Lukoil-Volgograd-neftepererabotka" during the period from July 25 to August 8, 1996, the oil sludge was ignited due to the unacceptable conduct of welding operations. The surface layer of oil products was formed during the last two decades, and a similar ignition in this area was already noted in 1972. As a result of the 1996 fire, about 50,000 tons of oil products were burned, since even the soil was saturated with volatile fractions at this site. In the fire, the concentration of carbon monoxide exceeded the permissible standards by almost 28 times, nitrogen dioxide tripled, hydrogen sulfide and phenol more than 1.5 times. In the residential areas of the Krasnoarmeysky district of Volgograd, located 7 km from the fire, as well as in the nearby settlements - B. and M. Chapurnik, Dubov Gully, Chervlen, Tingut - the content of combustion products in the air also exceeded the maximum permissible concentration. In the liquidation of this major technogenic emergency situation with severe environmental consequences, the divisions of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia took part.[57][58]

In the fall of 2003, the Russian Emergencies Ministry revealed the oil spill as a result of the depressurization of the interfacial oil pipeline belonging to the TPP Lukoil-Usinskneftegaz on the territory of the Komi Republic near the city of Usinsk. The area of oil pollution in one case was about 1.8 thousand m², in the second - 377 m².[59]

On January 25, 2011 at about 10:00 (local time), as a result of oil leakage in the engine room LGPZ (CCI "Langepasneftegaz"), there was a fire. Fire extinguished more than 50 fighter. The plant suspended its work.

On April 20, 2012 at the Trebs field, developed jointly by Lukoil and Bashneft, there was an accident that caused significant damage to the natural environment: over a day, continued flowing of oil from the re-opened well, which led to large-scale contamination of the territory. According to the press service of the administration of the Nenets Autonomous District, the contamination area exceeded 5 thousand square meters, the volume of spilled oil, according to Bashneft, was 600 tonnes (in independent sources numbers were up to 2.2 thousand tonnes).[60][61][62]

In November 2009, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) imposed a record fine of ₽6.54 billion on the company for violating antitrust legislation. The fine was imposed for the abuse of the company's dominant position in the wholesale market of petroleum products in the first half of 2009, expressed in "the seizure of goods from circulation" and the creation of "discriminatory conditions for the sale of petroleum products to individual counterparties." As FAS has calculated, these actions led to an increase in prices in the wholesale markets of motor gasoline, diesel fuel, and aviation kerosene in the first half of 2009.[63]

• The Association of Small and Medium-Sized Oil Production Enterprises, also known as Assoneft, criticized Lukoil and the authorities of the Komi Republic for providing tax breaks to the oil companies of the region, which are obliged to extract at least 7 million tons of oil per year and (or) recycle at least 3 million tons. Only two enterprises–Lukoil-Komi and Lukoil-Ukhtaneftepererabotka–correspond to these conditions in the region. In March 2007, the Federal Antimonopoly Service initiated a case against the State Council of the Komi on the grounds of violation of Part 1 of Art. 15 of the Law "On Protection of Competition" with regard to restricting competition in the oil production and refining markets.[64][65]
• In October 2005, then-prime minister of Lithuania, Algirdas Brazauskas, was in the center of the scandal involving Lukoil. The opposition of the Lithuanian parliament, Homeland Union, began collecting signatures for the creation of a parliamentary commission to investigate the entrepreneurial activity of Brazauskas' wife, Christina Butrimene-Brazauskiene, in particular with the acquisition of a 38% stake in the elite Vilnius Crowne Plaza hotel from the wife of the head of the Lukoil-Baltija company. The charges were related to Lukoil's contention at that time for a stake in one of the largest enterprises in Lithuania, the oil refinery ORLEN Lietuva, part of Polish energy company ORLEN. Brazauskas rejected allegations of corruption, but admitted his wife owns 51% of the hotel shares, and another 48% belong to his son. On November 22, at the insistence of the country's president Valdas Adamkus, Algirdas Brazauskas spoke on television, saying he was not involved in the privatization of the hotel, and that all charges should be considered by law enforcement bodies, not by the parliamentary commission.[66]
• On February 25, 2011, Lukoil's vice president Anatoliy Barkov crashed his Mercedes S500 into a Citroën C3 car with doctor Olga Alexandrina and famous obstetrician Vera M. Sidelnikova inside; both women died in the collision. The General Administration for Traffic Safety blamed the driver of the Citroën but it was suggested the administration was covering up that the real culprit of the accident was the driver of the Mercedes, who, according to eyewitnesses, was driving around a traffic jam and went into the oncoming lane. There is also some speculation that the driver of the Mercedes was the Vice-President of Lukoil himself. A few days after the accident, the Head of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of Moscow issued a notice of misconduct to the commander of the Traffic Police battalion who registered the accident on Leninsky Avenue because he had prematurely called the driver of the Citroën, Olga Alexandrin, the culprit of the accident. The incident caused a public reaction, in particular, a boycott of this company's gas stations was organized. Blogger Andrei Bocharov announced a mock advertisement of Lukoil based on this accident, and rapper Noize MC wrote the song "Mercedes S666 (Make Way for the Chariot)".[67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75]
• In July 2011, Lukoil had a conflict with Bulgarian authorities. According to the latter, the company's Bourgas refinery did not have timely installed meters for the manufactured fuel (used to determine the amount of excises paid), which, according to officials, Lukoil allegedly underpaid about €250 million to the country's budget. As a result, the company lost its license and was stopped, but in early August 2011 the plant was re-launched.[76]
• On September 14, 2012 more than fifty Lukoil gas station owners in New Jersey and Pennsylvania temporarily raised their prices to over $8 a gallon to protest Lukoil's wholesale gas pricing. The owners are typically charged a wholesale price that is 5 to 10 cents a gallon more than their competitors and some are assessed an additional 25 to 30 cents per gallon based on their location.[77] According to the station owners this makes it difficult to be competitive with stations that sell more established brands for lower prices.
• In January 2015, the Security Service of Ukraine announced an investigation into whether Lukoil had financed separatists in Donbass.[78]
• In March 2016, there were accusations by the press of the company not acquiring rights to part of the Massandra vineyards in Crimea.[79][80]
• In March 2018, the data firm Cambridge Analytica, tied to the 2016 Trump Campaign, was accused of discussing "political targeting" of American voters with representatives of Lukoil.[81]