Lukoil

The PJSC Lukoil Oil Company (Russian: Лукойл, romanized: Lukoyl, IPA: [ˈluːkɔɪl] stylized as LUKOIL or ЛУКОЙЛ in Cyrillic script) is a Russian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Moscow, specializing in the business of extraction, production, transport, and sale of petroleum, natural gas, petroleum products, and electricity.

It was formed in 1991 when three state-run western Siberian companies merged. The original companies were named after the towns in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug that each was based in: Langepasneftegaz, Urayneftegaz, and Kogalymneftegaz. Its new name is the combination of the acronym LUK (initials of the oil-producing cities of Langepas, Uray, Kogalym) and the English word "oil".

Lukoil is the third largest company in Russia after Rosneft and Gazprom, and the country's largest non-state enterprise in terms of revenue, with ₽4,744 billion in 2018. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Lukoil was ranked as the 99th-largest public company in the world. Internationally, it is one of the largest global producers of crude oil. In 2019, the company produced 87.488 million metric tons of oil (1.639 million barrels per day) and 35.046 billion cubic meters of natural gas.^{[failed verification]} In 2021, it had operations and subsidiaries in more than 30 countries around the world, but as of 2025, that was down to 14 countries. The company's revenue amounted to 2.9 trillion rubles in 2022, and reached 3 trillion rubles in 2024.

"Langepas, Uray, and Kogalym" oil (Lukoil) was established by the Soviet Union 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).

The central figure in the company's founding was the Soviet deputy minister of oil production Vagit Alekperov. 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.

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.

In 1994, Lukoil became the first company to begin offering shares of stock on the new Russian Trading System. The Filanovsky oil field was discovered and operated by Lukoil.

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. 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. 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.