Lukoil

   Founded in 1991 through the merger of the firms Langepasneftegaz, Uraineftegaz, and Kogalymneftegaz, Lukoil is Russia’s largest company and its largest producer of oil. It is the world’s secondlargest publicly traded company in terms of proven reserves of oil and natural gas (behind ExxonMobil), and controls 1.3 percent of the world’s reserves. Headquartered in Moscow, Lukoil has operations in over 40 countries and produces nearly 2 million barrels of oil per day. Within Russia, its major fields lie in western Siberia, the Volga-Ural region, and the Timan-Pechora basin. Internationally, Lukoil is engaged in exploration and/or production in the Middle East, Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Columbia, and Venezuela. Besides oil, the company also has major gas processing plants across the Russian Federation and is also invested in energy generation. Lukoil owns Getty Oil, giving it a major platform for distribution in the United States. It also has retail operations in much of Central Europe and the Newly Independent States. The company is controlled by Vahid Alakbarov, the former Soviet deputy minister of oil production. Unlike other major enterprises in the Russian energy sector, Lukoil has generally avoided being dragged into domestic or international politics, though the company’s interests in Iraq and Iran have colored the Kremlin’s policies toward those states.