A former Caspian Sea oil rig worker, Vagit Alekperov became a deputy minister overseeing the oil industry in the Soviet Union. In 1991 he took three large ministry-controlled oil fields and set up Lukoil, now Russia's largest independent oil company. Lukoil, of which he owns about 30%, was hit by U.S. sanctions in September 2014. Alekperov owns Dutch shipyard Heesen Yachts, where his 230-foot yacht Galactica Super Nova was built in 2016. Seen as comparatively independent, Alekperov remains unsanctioned, likely because he is seen as a counterweight to state-owned Rosneft's sanctioned boss, Igor Sechin.
