Russia's 'Darth Vader' Just Became Chairman Of The Biggest Oil Company On Earth

Rosneft just overcame Exxon Mobile to become the biggest oil company in the world, and the $55 billion deal was done between friends.

It had to be, because as Bloomberg reports, the dealmakers didn't even sign a guarantee of payment.

Here's what went down: A group of Russia's richest men Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik, owned oil company TNK-BP along with Britain's BP.

For months, they've been talking to Rosneft, Russia's state oil company, about a sale. Today they did the deal and sold the company lock stock and barrel.

BP got a 20% stake in Rosneft, and everyone got about $40 billion in cash, according to Reuters. The billionaires themselves, collectively under the group Alfa-Access-Renova, got $27.73 billion of that payout.

The Chairman of Rosneft and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Senchin (also known to the Russian press as "the scariest person on earth" or Darth Vader) is now the chairman of the biggest oil company on earth.

And scary though he may be, the oligarchs obviously think he's trustworthy, as they didn't make Snechin sign a guarantee of payment.

Here's what Viktor Vekselberg (who is expected to personally net $7 billion off the deal) said about that in January (from Bloomberg):

“We signed an agreement, any guarantee letters are needless,” the Renova Group chairman told reporters in Moscow today. “We deal with such a respected company as Rosneft, and with its respected managers. We trust them.”

Heart-warming.