Baku and Oil. The Soviet Period
After the 1917 revolution the Soviet
power was established in Baku. In accordance with the Decree of the Baku
Soviet of the National Commissars of June 1, 1918 the oil industry, as
well as the Caspian commercial fleet were nationalised. All in all in Baku
about 400 private oil firms were nationalised. 1.3 million tons of oil was
exported to Russia by the Bolsheviks for the 4 months of 1918 without any
compensation. When in 1918 the Musavat government came to power, the
process of nationalisation was stopped (Decree of October 6, 1918) and all
the properties taken away were returned to their former owners. However,
the frequent change of the owners, the limited possibilities of the oil
export led to the serious fall in the oil industry. The extraction of 1919
was 3.7 million tons of oil, which comprised only half of the extraction
in 1916.
The extreme importance of the Baku oil for the Soviet Russia
predetermined the occupation of Baku in April 1920 by the military units
of Red Army. As a result the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic
Republic, which had existed almost for two years fell. Only from April 30
to May 2 1920, that is immediately after the establishment of the Soviet
power in Baku twelve tankers with 1.3 million poods of oil were sent to
Russia, and in May of the same year the quantity of the exported oil
increased to 15 million poods, and in June – to 21.2 million poods of oil
and oil products. The oil industry was completely nationalised.
In 1921 the oil extraction in Baku reached its lowest level of 2.4
million tons. The Soviet government, wonderfully realising the
significance of the Azerbaijani oil, actively carried out measures on the
restoration and development of the oil industry. As a result of the work
carried out in the 1920s and 1930s, the oil extraction in Azerbaijan in
1940 reached 22.2 million tons, which comprised 71.5% of the entire oil
extraction in the USSR. Within that period new oil fields were opened, the
drainage of the Bibi Heibat bay finished (1927), the construction work of
the Baku-Batumi oil pipe-line was completed (1925) and for the first time
in the world the drilling of the oil well in the open sea was carried out.
In the years of the Great Patriotic War the Azerbaijani oil played a
decisive role in the victory over the fascist Germany. Taking into
consideration the growing requirements in oil, the oil workers of Baku
reached the record level of oil extraction in 1941 – 23.482 million tons.
Never before was in Baku extracted so much oil, this record has not been
surpassed up to now. Thousands of oil workers went to the front to fight
and their places in the fields were taken by the women. By the summer of
1942 25 thousand women had been working in the oil industry which
comprised 33% of all the workers. By 1944 their number reached 60%.
The German army was
approaching Baku. Hitler even fixed the day of the city’s capture –
September 25, 1942. Under these conditions the city was preparing for the
evacuation. By the autumn of 1942 764 wells were stopped and prepared for
destruction and 81 sets of drilling equipment together with the personnel
were sent to Turkmenia. At the same time, Baku provided the front with
oil, restoring and exploiting the old wells. Taking into account the fact
that the Germans blocked the traditional ways of transportation, it was
decided to transport oil through Middle Asia. For the first time in the
world practice the railway cisterns with oil were tugged afloat in the sea
from Baku to Krasnovodsk. In accordance with the decision of the State
Defence Committee about 11 thousand oil specialists and a great number of
equipment were evacuated from Baku to Tataristan, Bashgiria and other
regions of Russia in October 1942. Most of them were transported to the
vicinities of the city of Kuybishev (Tataristan) where with the help of
the Baku oil workers and equipment the oil extraction was developed. As a
result these places were nicknamed “a second Baku”. From the end of 1943
when the danger around Baku was over, the restoration of the oil industry
started. But as a result of the weakened industrial potential of
Azerbaijan the level of oil extraction fell, reaching 11.5 million tons in
1945. Only from 1947 the oil extraction began to grow again.
At the end
of the 1940s the construction of the “Oil Rocks” (“Neft Dashlari”)
started. On November 14, 1948 the first troop of oil workers headed by
Nikolay Baybakov landed in the open sea on a group of rocks 42 km to the
south-east of the Apsheron Peninsular called “Gara Dashlar” (“Black
Rocks”). The staff of the troop included Sabit Orujov and geologist
Agagurban Aliyev, the author of the idea that there is oil in the sea. All
of them later became living legends. After finishing the construction of a
small house on piles and an electric power station, M.Kaverochkin’s
brigade started drilling the first well on June 24, 1949. On November 7,
1949 this well at a depth of 1100 m gushed out oil with a daily output of
100 tons. In honour of this event it was decided to rename “Black Rocks”
as “Oil Rocks”. And on February 18, 1951 the first tanker with oil was
ceremoniously sent to the shore. It was decided to create an artificial
island of 7 thousand hectares around the Oil Rocks. Half a million cubic
metres of rocky blocks and sand were brought from the islands of Zhiloy
and Urunos. Breakwaters, moorings and shelters for vessels were built
around.
And in 1952 for the first time in the
world practice there started the construction of a pier which connected
the artificial islands. There were times when the length of the pier
connecting the numerous areas reached 300 km. The grand construction
started on the Oil Rocks in 1958. In the open sea at 110 km distance from
Baku electric power stations, five- and even nine-storey buildings of
hostels, hospitals, Palaces of Culture, bakery factories, lemonade
workshop were constructed (its product was even “exported” to the shore),
a park with trees was laid too. Since 1949 there have been drilled 1940
wells here, more than 160 million tons of oil and 12 billion cubic metres
of gas have been extracted. At present the Oil Rocks is the furthest
eastern settlement in the country. More than 2000 people are working here
at present.
In 1964-1968 the level of oil extraction rose to the stable level and
comprised about 21 million tons per year. From 1969 to 1985 the quantity
of the extracted oil began to decrease from year to year, as a result
within five years the oil extraction remained on the point of 13 million
tons per year. The reasons for the fall of the level of the oil extraction
in the 60s of the XX century were the exhaustion of the on-shore oil
fields, and the high cost price of oil extracted in the sea, as well as
the discovery of big deposits of oil in the Western Siberia, Kazakhistan
and other regions of the Soviet Union. All these factors led to the
decrease of the share of Azerbaijan in the overall oil extraction in the
USSR (in 1950 – 39.1%, by 1960 – 12%, in 1970-1980 correspondingly from
5.7% to 2.4%). As a result of it, Moscow ceased paying a due attention to
the oil industry of Azerbaijan.
However, despite all the
above-mentioned, within this period, several big off-shore oil and gas
fields on the Caspian shelf were put into operation, some oil-refineries
and machine-building factories were constructed. In 1971 the extraction of
the first billion tons of oil since the beginning of the industrial
development in Azerbaijan was ceremoniously celebrated in the Republic. In
1981 the record quantity of gas was extracted – 15 billion cubic metres.
The next fall in the oil extraction began in 1990. Its main reasons
were the overall fall of the economy of the USSR in the 80s and violation
of the economic relations among the subjects of the former Soviet Union
after gaining independence.
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