The son of the main shareholder of LUKOIL, Vagit Alekperov, will be engaged in the oilfield services business

The family of LUKOIL’s main shareholder Vagit Alekperov is expanding its presence in the oilfield services business. His son Yusuf became the controlling shareholder in WellTech, a joint venture with LUKOIL, which will be engaged in the maintenance and workover of wells in Western Siberia. The Alekperov family already owns the largest stake in Eurasia Drilling Company, LUKOIL’s key drilling contractor.

Yusuf Alekperov’s Ekto holding became a co-founder of the WellTech oilfield service company with a 51% share, follows from the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, which Kommersant has read. The rest of the share was received by LUKOIL’s subsidiary, LUKOIL-Western Siberia. Ecto’s contribution to the authorized capital of WellTech amounted to 51 million rubles. The company was registered in Kogalym (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug) in September last year and received 84 million rubles in revenue in 2022. The main profile of WellTech is current and workover of wells. The company posted several recruitment ads on its website and recruiting sites. In the Telegram channel, WellTech calls itself an innovative oilfield service company operating throughout the West Siberian region. LUKOIL and WellTech did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

Yusuf Alekperov is the 32-year-old son of Vagit Alekperov, the main shareholder of LUKOIL. Most of Yusuf Alekperov’s business is connected with LUKOIL. Its Ekto holding includes the Western Petroleum Transportation railway operator, the Lukavto car dealer (in parity ownership with the Strategic Development Holding), and the Plan B energy producer. In May, Forbes named Yusuf Alekperov the richest Russian heir.

Vagit Alekperov left the post of head of LUKOIL in April 2022 after the UK imposed sanctions against him. Instead of Mr. Alekperov, this position was taken by his deputy Vadim Vorobyov.

The Alekperov family already has a large oilfield services business – Eurasia Drilling Company (BKE). BKE was historically created on the basis of the drilling assets of LUKOIL and, although in 2004 it was sold to the Cypriot Eurasia Drilling Company created by Alexander Dzhaparidze, it has not lost its close relationship with the oil company. All these years LUKOIL has been BKE’s largest customer. In May 2022, EDC transferred the BKE business directly to Russian owners. Now the largest owner of the drilling company is Strategic Development Holding (35.5% share), which, according to the latest data as of February 2022, was owned in equal shares by Vagit Alekperov, his wife Larisa and Yusuf Alekperov. Other major shareholders of BKE are the Maganov family (32.3%), Salih Hajiyev (18.4%), Jevan Cheloyants (11.5%).

“WellTech specializes in repairs, there are no serious problems with the equipment – except for valves and pumps, but this is a solvable issue,” says Dmitry Kasatkin from Kasatkin Consulting. In his opinion, the biggest problem is the lack of a sufficient number of personnel: the repair market is now characterized by high demand, there are actually no free teams. It is quite possible, the expert argues, that the “friendly” BKE will be able in the future to help meet the needs of WellTech with equipment and personnel, for example, by leasing equipment to it.

Dmitry Kozlov