Fuel oil in the extraction of Baku oil. Tanks for storage of oil and oil products

The beginning of industrial oil refining dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when Baku became the largest oil region in Russia. With the abolition of oil tax cuts in 1872, there was an accelerated development of the oil business, which intensified significantly from September 1877.

The beginning of industrial oil refining dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when Baku became the largest oil region in Russia. With the abolition in 1872 of the tax on oil, an accelerated development of the oil business took place, which significantly intensified from September 1877, when the excise tax on petroleum products was canceled (until 1888). The abolition of the excise tax contributed to the rapid growth of oil production in Azerbaijan. Over the next forty years (until 1917), more than 3 thousand wells were drilled in Absheron, of which about 2 thousand produced oil. However, even before the abolition of the lease, serious attempts were made to develop the oil business. Thus, the first oil refineries were built in Mozdok by the Dubinin brothers (serfs of Countess Panina) and in 1837 by mining engineer N.I. Voskoboynikov in the Baku village of Balakhany, but the work was not completed.

In 1858 - 1859. Baron N.E. Tornau, V.A. Kokorev and P.I. Gubonin are building in the Baku village of Surakhany, not far from the temple of fire worshipers, the first oil refinery according to the German model for processing kir (asphalt). The goal was to obtain lighting oils from tar shales, but the results were unsatisfactory, and kir was replaced with oil, which gave a good lighting oil. The outstanding German chemist Justus Liebig took an active part in the project of this plant, who sent his assistant K. Engler to Baku especially for this.

In December 1863, already in Baku itself, Javad Melikov built a kerosene plant and, for the first time in the world history of oil refining, used refrigerators in the distillation process. The famous Russian oilman V.I. Ragozin described D. Melikov as follows: “Like all people who were possessed by an idea, he saw in every undertaking only a means to embody the idea, and seemed to Baku people an eccentric and a strange person. Still, it would not seem strange when a person was not looking for profit, giving up to the last penny everything he had, not thinking about yesterday, just to achieve the goal. In the history of the development of technical industries, we often meet with such eccentrics who give impetus to industries, move them forward, but themselves remain out of work and die in poverty and obscurity, and the crowd, who did not trust them and laughed at them, takes possession of what was created on their basis. property."

The founder of kerosene and paraffin production in Baku and Grozny, D. Melikov, unable to withstand competition with large oil refining industrialists, died in poverty, forgotten by everyone.

The first borehole in Apsheron was drilled in 1844 by a mining engineer F. Semenov in the village of Bibi-Heybat and gave a good flow rate. However, Semenov's report on this to General A. Neidgart dated December 22, 1844 did not receive due attention. Nevertheless, the drilling of deep oil wells was started right here, on the shores of the Caspian Sea in the villages of Bibi-Heybat and Balakhani, and only a few years later (in 1859) after the first initiative of Baku residents, deep wells began to be drilled in the state of Pennsylvania (USA) .

It was from 1859, after the discovery of a large artesian spring at Vennano in Pennsylvania, that commercial oil production began. Until the end of 1860, up to 2 thousand wells were drilled in Pennsylvania with a depth of 20 to 200 m. oil fields.

In 1864, the public and statesman of Russia N.A. Novoselsky (1823 - 1901) gave the first impetus to the oil business in the Caucasus, he laid the first borehole in the Kuban region.

After receiving official permission in 1868 to drill oil wells in the Apsheron in Balakhany in 1871, a second oil well was drilled mechanically, 64 m deep. the price per pood was 45 kopecks, then after the opening on June 13, 1873 in Balakhany of the famous Vermishev fountain, which flooded over a short time surroundings and formed several oil lakes, it decreased to 2 kopecks. The well of the oil industrialist I.A. Vermishev spewed an oil fountain 611 m high for 13 days and threw out more than 90 million poods of oil within 3 months. This was many times greater than many of the oil inflows received in Pennsylvania.

The abolition of the lease and the granting of the right to private individuals to lease oil-bearing lands contributed to the rapid growth of the oil industry in Russia and the emergence of many oil-industrial firms and trading companies: “G.Z. Tagiev” (1872), “Baku Oil Society” (1874). ), “Nobel Brothers” (1879), Rothschild’s “Caspian-Black Sea Society” (1883), etc.

In 1879, the Baku branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (BO IRTS) was established, which contributed to the enhanced development of the oil business in Azerbaijan. D.I.Mendeleev, V.V.Markovnikov, L.G.Gurvich, G.Z.Tagiev, L.E.Nobel, V.I.Ragozin, M.Nagiev and others spoke at the meetings of the society. writer Charles Marvin, visiting in 1882 - 1883. Russia (Caucasus, Baku, Caspian coast) was surprised by the scope of the oil business in these regions and described it in his books “The Russian advance towards India” (1882), “The Russians at Merv and Herat” (1883) and etc. .

The famous Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun (Pedersen), Nobel Prize winner in literature in 1920, also described his memories of a trip to Russia, especially to the Caucasus and Baku, in his book “In a Fairyland”. In Baku, he met with the public of the city and visited the firm “br. Nobel".

It is characteristic that the tsarist government actively supported the formation and development of large firms, since they were more organized in terms of production and better represented the interests of industry.

Soon, lamps appeared in Russia, adapted for Russian kerosene, which is somewhat different from American. Here it is appropriate to note the role of the outstanding chemist D.I. Mendeleev, who first proposed the use of oil residues after the extraction of kerosene to obtain lubricating oils. In his article “What to do with Baku oil?” he described in detail the method of obtaining lighting oil, which he called bakuoil. The scientist carefully studied the oil business in Russia; visited Baku several times (in 1863, 1880 and 1886 (2 times)) in order to study the economy and the state of the technical equipment of the oil fields.

D.I. Mendeleev highly appreciated the active work of the Nobel brothers and the Rothschilds in the Caucasus and Baku, noting their primary role in the formation and development of the oil business in these regions. Despite the difficult relationship that the scientist had with L. Nobel, he wrote: “... a special revival in the course of Baku oil affairs came only when, in the late 70s, the Nobel brothers, especially L.E. Nobel, who had a machine factory Petersburg, formed a large company to exploit the Baku oil reserves. Until then, everything was done with small capital, and the Nobel Society invested more than 20 million rubles in the business, started production on a large scale, a huge plant for several million pounds of kerosene a year, arranged an oil pipeline from the fields to the factory and to the pier, acquired many excellent steam tankers on the Caspian Sea and tanker barges on the Volga ... ”.

The name of Mendeleev is associated not only with the history of the development of the Russian oil business, but also with the beginning of the publication of the first books on oil and its processing. Under the editorship of D.I. Mendeleev in St. Petersburg, in the printing house of the partnership “Public Benefit”, the “Technical Encyclopedia (according to Wagner)” was published, 1862 - 1896.

The most pressing issue in the 80s - 90s was the construction of oil pipelines between the fields and factories of the Black City in Baku, which was closely tackled by the most energetic firms “br. Nobel”, “G.Z. Tagiyev” and “Baku Oil Society”. In 1877, the construction of the first oil pipeline in Russia between the fields of the village of Sabunchi and the factories of the Black City was completed. By 1890, 25 oil pipelines with a length of about 286 km were laid in the Baku oil region, through which up to 1.5 million poods of oil per day were pumped from fields to factories.

It is necessary to recall the talented engineer, honorary member of the Polytechnical Society V.G. Shukhov (1853 - 1939), who was the main manager of the construction of the Balakhani - Black City oil pipeline and about the professor of the St. Petersburg Technical Institute N.L. Shchukin (1848 - 1924), the author of the project of the Transcaucasian Baku - Batumi oil pipeline.

The construction of the main oil pipeline Baku - Batum, about the need for which there were fierce debates at that time, took 10 years. Subsequently, this unique oil pipeline provided invaluable assistance in the fight against the American oil policy, opening access for Baku oil to the world market.

The creation of tankers for the transportation of oil and oil products significantly influenced the development of the Caspian Fleet, opening a new era in the oil business. For the first time in the world, the oil tanker "Zoroaster" was built by L. Nobel in 1877 in the Swedish city of Motala; Subsequently, he built a whole oil-loading fleet, which included the ships Magomed, Moses, Spinoza, Darwin, and others. Nobel transported oil and oil products to countless tanks built by it in Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan, Yaroslavl, etc.

Later, ships belonging to other companies sailed along the waterways of Russia. For example, the trade and transport company "Mazut", created by A. Rothschild in 1898, owned 13 tankers in the Caspian Sea, as well as several steamships. By 1912, this society was a solid oil export and trade association.

Since 1880, tankers from the port of Batumi with Baku kerosene have been sent to many countries of the world. In the 1980s and 1990s, Baku oil competed freely with American oil and even forced it out of European and Asian markets. The kerosene exported from Baku fully meets the needs of Russia, and since 1883 the import of American kerosene into the empire has been stopped.

Comparison of data on oil production in the USA and Russia showed that in 1859 in the USA (Pennsylvania) oil production was 82 thousand barrels; in 1889 - 14 million barrels. In Russia (Baku) in 1889, 16.7 million barrels of oil were produced. In 1901, the Baku oil region produced 95% of the total imperial oil production; in that year, oil production in Russia was distributed as follows: 667.1 million poods from the Baku province and about 34.7 million poods from the Terek region. The number of workers employed in the oil fields of the Russian Empire increased from 7,000 in 1894 to 27,000 in 1904, of which 24,500 worked in the Baku oil region. In 1904, there were 150 oil refineries in Russia, 72 of them were located in Baku.

Of particular note is that the Russian oil industry, until 1917, was represented exclusively by the Azerbaijani (Baku) oil industry. The main deposits of Baku were Balakhani, Sabunchi, Ramany, Bibi-Heybat and Surakhani.

In 1899 - 1901. Baku, having provided more than half of all world oil production, brought Russia to the first place, leaving behind such countries as the USA, Argentina, Peru and others. Baku kerosene completely ousted American oil, first from Russian cities, then from foreign ones. For example, in 1885, instead of American kerosene, 37 million gallons of domestic raw materials were delivered to Asian countries from Baku via Batum. Growth of Baku's oil industry late XIX century, put Russia in a number of advanced capitalist countries of the world: after 1901, it kept the second place (after the USA) for a long time, until it was forced out by Mexico.

To organize and coordinate activities Russian entrepreneurs were the congresses of Baku oil owners, established in 1884. Their main goal was considered to be "the opportunity for oil owners to express their needs, aspirations and desires to the government." The congress was an association of the capitals of oil firms, in which each firm had a certain share of votes. So, at the 33rd congress of oil owners in 1914, the largest firms had 111 votes: “bro. Nobel - 18, Shell - 34 and General Corporation Oil - 59. to protect the interests of their firms before the government. Since 1898, the Council of the Congress published in Baku the newspaper-magazine "Oil Business", which from May 1920 to this day is called "Azerbaijan Oil Industry".

Large oil producers, in search of new world markets, actively participated in the world's largest exhibitions. L. E. Nobel and V. I. Ragozin were especially successful in this. Their exhibits of oil products from Baku refineries, shown in Paris (1878), Brussels (1880) and London (1881), received the highest marks from experts.

After the death of the head of the company “br. Nobel” Ludwig (March 31, 1888) in Russia will be approved by the Nobel Prizes. L. Nobel (1891) and his son Emmanuel Nobel (1909). Archival documents, collected in the Biographical International Encyclopedia "Humanistics" about the Russian Nobel Prizes, show the bright contribution of the father and son of the Nobels to the development of industry, science and education in the empire and, in particular, in oil Baku.

Of particular note is V.I. Ragozin, who in 1875 researched lubricating oils for the first time in the history of the world oil industry and built the first factories for this in Balakhna (Nizhny Novgorod province) and Konstantinov (near Yaroslavl). In 1878, lubricating oils from Baku oil, which he exported abroad, firmly conquered the world market.

Thus, Azerbaijani oil as a raw material for the production of lubricating oils has played an important role in the Russian economy. The oil plants of Ragozin on the Volga, Nobel, Tagiev, Shibaev, Nagiyev, Rothschild, Asadullayev and others in Baku, Frolov, Rolls and Petukhov in St. Petersburg received lubricating oils from Baku oils, which successfully replaced American lubricating oils in England, France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Denmark and other European countries. By the beginning of the 90s of the 19th century, the capacity of Russian oil refineries made it possible to fully satisfy the empire's need for high-quality lubricating oils. Petroleum products obtained at Baku refineries, as well as the bulk of crude unrefined oil, were exported from Baku in four ways: through the Caspian, Transcaucasian and Vladikavkaz (Baku-Petrovsk) railways and a very small amount - tug. So, in 1904, the total volume of exported oil and oil products was about 492.1 million poods.

Since in the 90s Baku oil became the main cargo for the Volga fleet, its accelerated development took place, a large number of barges were built on the Volga to transport oil products, and the fleet was based on wooden barges (about 94% in 1900), which were transported along Volga with the help of tugboats. During this period, the firm “br. Nobel” raised the issue of the mandatory replacement of wooden oil barges with iron ones, which were much more practical (did not leak oil products) and more durable. However, they were very expensive and were available only to large firms; by the end of the 19th century, they were owned by firms “br. Nobel”, A. Rothschild, G.Z. Tagiev, Sh. Asadullaeva, “Caucasus and Mercury”, etc. These companies had a significant number petroleum fuel transported to the domestic markets of Russia. For example, only the firm “br. Nobel supplied Russia with up to 80 million pounds. The formation and development of the Caspian and Volga fleets by the end of the 19th century were of great importance for the delivery of oil fuel from Baku to large Russian cities, and also contributed to the growth of the shipbuilding and ship repair industry of the Volga region.

The accelerated development of the Russian (Baku) oil business was mainly due to a significant influx of foreign capital into it (Nobels, Rothschilds, Vishau, etc.), which from the beginning of the 20th century rapidly penetrated into the oil industry of Russia, and with the simultaneous ousting of Russian and Baku entrepreneurs, not only from the oil industry, but also from the trade in petroleum products. By the end of the 19th century, the firms “br. Nobel” and Rothschild’s “Caspian-Black Sea Society” concentrated in their hands up to 70% of all oil trade in Russia.

Wealth of oil deposits, cheap work force and naturally, the huge profits that the oil business brought to the industrialists accelerated the influx of foreign currency into the Russian oil industry. This was facilitated by the resolution dated May 1, 1880, of the Special Conference on the issue of the admissibility of foreigners to the oil field within the Baku region. Ardent supporters of attracting foreign capital to the Russian oil business were Prince M. Golitsyn, the head of the civil part in the Caucasus, and S. Witte, the Minister of Finance of Russia. Prince Golitsyn wrote: "... Any unconditional restriction of the activities of foreign enterprises in the Caucasus would be tantamount to a serious delay in the industrial prosperity of the country." Finance Minister Witte at special meetings on oil affairs always pointed out: "... The competition of our oil products on the world market is absolutely unthinkable without the involvement of foreign and especially English entrepreneurs and their capital."

Having firmly strengthened their positions in oil-filled Baku, foreign firms tried to control developments in other oil regions of the Russian Empire: in Grozny, in the North Caucasus, the Caspian islands (Cheleken), in Central Asia (Fergana), the Ural-Embe region, etc. World War II (1914), the four largest associations dominated the Baku oil industry: the firm “br. Nobel, the Anglo-Dutch Trust Royal Dutch Shell, the Russian General Oil Corporation Oil, and the financial oil partnership Neft. The total foreign capital invested in the Baku oil business by 1917 was 111 million rubles.

In conclusion, it is necessary to note the great merit of scientists-chemists and engineers: D.I. Mendeleev, K.I. Lisenko, V.V. Markovnikov, F.F. Belstein, N.D. Zelinsky, L.G. .V.Kharichkova, V.G.Shukhova, N.L.Shchukin, S.K.Kvitko, A.A.Letny, N.I.Voskoboynikova, O.K.Lenz, A.I.Sorokina, P.Semyannikova (the first chairman of the BO IRTS), A.A. Gukhman (a member of the Council of the BO IRTS), V.F. Herr (the head of the chemical laboratory of the BO IRTS) and others who played an invaluable role in the development of the oil industry in Russia, and in particular, Baku.

Azerbaijani scientists (M.M. Khanlarov, M.G. Hajinsky, A. Mirzoev, I. Rzaev, F. Rustambekov, S. Ganbarov, I. Amirov and others), who received higher education in universities in Russia and Europe, worked in the BO IRTS, contributing to the accelerated development of chemical and technical sciences in Azerbaijan.

Bibliography:

1. Ragozin V.I. Oil and oil industry. St. Petersburg, 1884. - 150 p.

2. Big Encyclopedia. St. Petersburg. Publishing Association "Enlightenment", ed. S.N. Yuzhakov. - 1896. - Vol. 12, 14, 22.

3. Akhundov B.Yu. Monopoly capital in the pre-revolutionary Baku oil industry. - M., 1959. - 180 p.

4. Monopoly capital in the Russian oil industry 1914 - 1917. - L.: Nauka, 1973. - 210 p.

5. Nardova V.A. The beginning of the monopolization of the Russian oil industry. L.: "Nauka", 1974. - 150 p.

6. Samedov V.A. Oil and the Russian Economy (80s - 90s of the 19th century). - Baku: Elm. - 1988. - 200 p.

7. Meshkunov V.S. Scientific publishing house of the biographical international encyclopedia "Humanistics". - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg. book. publishing house, 1998. - 250 p.

8. Mir-Babaev M.F., Fuks I.G. The Nobel brothers and Azerbaijani oil (to the 120th anniversary of the foundation of the company)//Chemistry and technology of fuels and oils. - 1999. - No. 4. - P.51 - 53.

9. Fuks I.G., Matishev V.A., Mir-Babaev M.F. Baku period of activity of the “Nobel Brothers Oil Production Partnership” (on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of its foundation)//Science and technology of hydrocarbons. - 1999. - No. 5. - S. 86 - 94.

10. Mir-Babaev M.F., Fuks I.G., Matishev V.A. Foreign capital in the oil business of Russia (Absheron until 1917)//Science and technology of hydrocarbons. - 2000. - No. 5. - P.75 - 80.

Postcard from 1863. “Balakhany, from where oil was delivered to the Baku oil refineries in skins and barrels, transported on carts and by pack.”

Baku oil and gas region- the largest region in terms of production, oil and gas reserves in the Russian Empire, the Azerbaijan SSR, and then on the territory of modern Azerbaijan. The oil fields of the region are located within the South Caspian oil and gas basin, on the territory of the Apsheron Peninsula and the adjacent waters of the Caspian Sea.

Industrial development began in the last third of the 19th century. Since 1870, more than 2 billion tons of oil have been produced. Here, for the first time in the USSR, the development of oil in the sea was started. There are over 80 oil and gas fields in the Baku oil and gas region. Main fields: Shah Deniz, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, Oil Rocks, Bakhar, Sangachali-sea, Bibi-Heybat, Surakhani, Karachukhur, Karadag.

Story

The world's first oil well with a positive result at a depth of 21 m was drilled in 1846 near the city of Baku (Bibi-Heybat); while the Americans drilled an oil well only in 1859 in Pennsylvania. The work on Bibi-Heybat was carried out under the leadership of the director of the Baku industries, Major Alekseev.

Chronology of oil production in the territory of the current Baku oil and gas region:

• 1837 - in the village of Balakhani, one of the first oil refineries in the Russian Empire was founded under the leadership of Voskoboynikov.
• 1842 - according to one of the regulations of the Mining Charter, oil produced as a result of drilling in the territory of the Absheron Peninsula was transferred to the state treasury.

Mining during the USSR

In the Caspian Sea, in the city, the Gyurgyany-Sea field was discovered, in the city - Oil Rocks, in the city - Darwin Bank. The largest field was Oil Rocks, which came into operation in the town of It was located 50 km from the coast, at sea depths from 6 to 27 m.

The fundamental oil report of the Union of Russian Commercial and Industrialists told the following story:

"The first attempts to use oil in industry were made in Russia on the Absheron Peninsula. In 1823, that is, ten years after the final annexation of the Baku Khanate by Russia, a Russian peasant named Dubinin founded the first oil refinery in the Caucasus, which, of course, was built very primitively, but still was the first industrial enterprise of its kind in history.".

The Dubinin plant, followed by a similar enterprise of the engineer Voskoboynikov, built in 1830 in the vicinity of Baku, produced kerosene, which was in short supply at that time. This seemed like a lucrative business.

A pood of oil cost the first oil owners 30-40 kopecks, and a pood of kerosene, obtained from three poods of oil, was sold in Central Russia for 40 rubles.

However, in reality, kerosene production barely made ends meet. The endless war with the Caucasian highlanders and the lack of railways made the delivery of products to the metropolis and the importation of everything necessary to Baku a very problematic and expensive affair, and therefore there were no people willing to establish new enterprises "in a territory that ... was completely uncultured" for quite a long time.

Only after the end of the Caucasian War and the consolidation of the Russian administration on the newly acquired lands, new industrialists were drawn to Absheron. However, both mining and oil refining went neither shaky nor rolls. The wells were dug by hand to a depth of no more than 25 meters.

A large amount of oil was lost due to primitive methods of transportation - in wineskins on camels. And in processing, the disposal of waste from the production of kerosene - fuel oil - became a serious headache. It's hard to imagine, but then it never occurred to anyone to use it as fuel. And this "oil mud", spending a lot of money, was taken out of Baku, poured into pits and burned.

Still, the main problem of the oil owners was the peculiarities of Russian legislation. Oil production was declared a state monopoly, and oil-bearing areas were leased to entrepreneurs for no more than four years. As a result, in 1850, only a little more than four thousand tons of oil were produced from 136 oil sources in the Shemakhan province, and in 1862 - 5.4 thousand tons from 220 sources.

The real development of oil fields began only half a century after the appearance of the peasant Dubinin on Absheron, when on February 1, 1872, the state monopoly on oil production was finally canceled. Instead of digging wells, drilling of oil wells began, and the daily production of Baku oil increased from several tens of tons to several thousand.

Foreign investors also appeared in Baku. In 1874, the Swede Robert Nobel went there to purchase a special kind of wood that was required for his brother's arms factory. However, the temptation to capitalize on the oil boom was too strong, and Nobel rented a piece of land on which he built an oil refinery. Robert's success impressed his brothers so much that in 1879 the Nobel Brothers Oil Industry Society was registered.

Over the years of its existence, this company has increased its capital a hundred times: from 300 thousand rubles to 30 million, and for the most part due to the introduction of new technologies. The Nobels invited engineers and scientists from Galicia, where the oil industry had been successfully developing since the middle of the 19th century, and from the United States. Swedish entrepreneurs, unlike Russians, were well aware that the main component of success was sales, and therefore they bought pipes and pumps from overseas, were the first to build oil pipelines, and began to produce railway tanks and oil tankers.

Moreover, as the historiographers of the Russian oil industry claimed, the Nobels were the first in the world to produce tankers. The Nobels were the first to build tanks for oil and oil products in large industrial centers of Russia. By introducing all these innovations, the Nobel society managed to achieve a phenomenal reduction in the cost of oil from 10 to 0.5 kopecks per pood. And after they were among the first to start developing Grozny oil, they began to be called the number one Russian oil company.

Another large foreign firm is the French Trading house Rothschild - appeared in Russia in 1886. Three years earlier, the Baku-Batumi railway had been completed and the "Batumi Oil Industrial Society" had been formed to use this route to transport kerosene to the sea and export it by ship. However, the founders did not have enough own funds, and the whole enterprise passed into the hands of the Rothschilds, who invested in promising project- The "Caspian-Black Sea Society" - a whopping 6 million rubles for that time.

Russian oilmen, not without reason, considered the appearance of the Rothschilds a salvation from the crisis. In the seven years since 1880, oil production in Russia has grown six and a half times. In 1887, Baku produced 2.64 million tons of crude oil and 700 thousand tons of oil products, which significantly covered the needs domestic market. The traditional Nobel export route - by barges along the Caspian, the Volga and further by rail to Germany - had a limited capacity, and the Rothschilds managed to almost double the export of kerosene from Russia in a year. Having concluded an agreement with the British, they began to supply Russian kerosene even to India. The big Russian oilmen also began to set up their own marketing offices in Europe and Asia.

The influx of export earnings stimulated production, and in 1901 Russia came out on top in the world - 11.2 million tons per year (53% of world production). Russian oil accounted for almost half of England's imports, a third of Belgium's, and three-quarters of France's. Moreover, Russia became the main supplier of oil and oil products to the Middle East, which was then suffering from its absence.

And all this, of course, irritated the largest company in the world market - the American Standard Oil.

to be continued...

Baku is hosting the XXIV International Exhibition and Conference "Oil and Gas of the Caspian-2017". The event, organized by ITECA Caspian and ITE Group, is an important event for the energy sector of the Caspian region. This year about 300 companies from 30 countries of the world take part in it. Their goal is to discuss with colleagues about the latest in the industry, to study the market situation and to establish new connections.

Over the past 24 years, Caspian Oil and Gas 2017 has been recognized as a platform for establishing reliable business relationships, concluding important contracts and successfully implementing projects. This oil and gas forum brings together senior managers of leading companies, as well as representatives of line ministries and reputable subject matter experts, providing them with an opportunity to exchange views on topical issues in the development of this industry.

On the eve of the opening of the XXIV International Exhibition and the conference "Oil and Gas of the Caspian Sea-2017" was attended by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva. In his speech, the head of state noted that today Azerbaijan is recognized in the world as a reliable partner that produces and exports oil and gas to the markets. Talking about the path covered over 24 years, during which various energy projects were successfully implemented, the President also shared his future plans. “Today we are thinking about the further activity of the giant Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field, and I hope that in the near future we will come to an agreement with foreign investors on the extension of this project. "Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli" has a huge potential, there is still quite a lot of unproduced oil. At present, the start of work on the Greater Absheron project is next in line. In fact, work has already begun. In 2-3 years, we expect the first gas from the Absheron project - gas reserves there are approximately 350 billion cubic meters. In addition, the Umid-Babek and Dayaz Sulu projects are being implemented in parallel. We are strengthening our oil and gas potential and plan to export natural gas and oil in even greater volumes,” Ilham Aliyev said.

The head of state spoke about the continuation of work on the second phase of the development of the Shah Deniz project and at what stage the pipeline projects are. “The Southern Gas Corridor is a unique project on a global scale, the first among infrastructure projects in the European space. The implementation of the Shah Deniz-2 project is at the level of 93 percent. Soon we will send to the sea and the upper part of the Shah Deniz platform. The implementation of the South Caucasus pipeline is at the level of 85 percent. This pipeline connects Azerbaijan with Georgia. The TANAP project, the contract for which was signed in 2012, is being successfully implemented. The implementation of the TANAP project is at the level of 72 percent. We expect that next year we will celebrate the commissioning of the TANAP project. The fourth project is TAP. The level of execution there is 42 percent. That is, these figures in themselves are an indicator. They show that all work is going according to plan, and we are approaching the completion of the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project,” the President noted.

Over the past 24 years, energy projects implemented by Azerbaijan have also received support from the United States. Robin Dunnigan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Diplomacy, arrived in Baku to participate in the next oil forum and read out a congratulatory message from President Donald Trump. “I appreciate the partnership that the US and Azerbaijan have built over the past quarter century and look forward to its continued growth. The US remains firmly committed to the Southern Gas Corridor and welcomes the efforts of Azerbaijan and its international partners to implement this project. I highly appreciate Azerbaijan's important role in global energy security, including the development and export of energy resources from the Caspian region. We support and welcome Azerbaijan's efforts to diversify the economy and look forward to developing bilateral cooperation in new areas. The US stands ready to work with you as you continue to pursue economic and political reforms. The United States hopes that prosperity and stability in Azerbaijan will grow, and this conference and the Southern Gas Corridor project are important to achieve these goals,” Trump said in a statement.

Azerbaijan's energy projects have attracted the attention of the European Union as well. In his video message to the exhibitors, Vice President of the European Commission for the Energy Union Maros Shefcovic noted that Azerbaijan is one of the most important partners of Europe. “Azerbaijan is trying to achieve its goals by implementing the Southern Gas Corridor, creating favorable conditions for the strategic diversification of its energy sources by the European Union, making an important contribution to maintaining geopolitical balance and stability in Europe. Today we are absolutely sure that by 2020 Azerbaijani gas will reach Europe. This is a fairly large-scale project. That is why it has taken an important place on our agenda within a tangible time frame. Azerbaijan's pipeline projects have attracted the common interest of the European Union and have been included in the list of important projects,” said Maros Shefcovic.

The international exhibition and conference "Oil and gas of the Caspian Sea-2017" will last three days. During this time, the exhibitors will get acquainted with the stands of companies that, along with oil production and energy transportation systems, will also present a wide range of equipment, services and innovative technologies for maintenance. Thus, a number of expositions are devoted to technologies for fuel purification and the production of finished products for the use of raw materials. A significant area here is occupied by companies offering raw materials for the chemical industry.

The American company "Pioneer engineering" is engaged in after-sales service oilfield equipment. According to company manager James Gat, Pioneer engineering's clients are BP and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan. “We are participating in this exhibition for the first time and we want to find new potential clients. Our company already has branches in Dubai, Iraq and Malaysia. The experience of participation in international projects, of course, has a positive trend, contributes to the growth of professionalism. In a short time, just four months, the company received several very prestigious certificates, which confirm the high quality of our equipment,” said Gat.

Global EnergyAzerbaijan is one of the largest oil producing enterprises in the country. It includes five local companies that are engaged in oil production on land. “We intend to tell exhibitors about promising directions activities of the holding, we will present to visitors the whole range of our professional developments. The Oil and Gas exhibition provides an opportunity not only to demonstrate your technologies and services, but also to establish interesting and useful business contacts,” said Khadija Babayeva, Assistant to the President of Global EnergyAzerbaijan.

Among the participants of the exhibition are the world's leading oil companies, at the stands of which you can get acquainted with the projects they are implementing. Thus, BP, which has been operating in Azerbaijan for many years, is implementing world-class projects in partnership with the government of Azerbaijan. Having turned the Caspian Sea into a modern hydrocarbon production region, it has made a significant contribution to the development of the industry. Another traditional partner of the country is the French company Total. Having signed an agreement with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan on the share division of production in the Absheron block, the company carried out drilling operations and revealed sufficient hydrocarbon reserves. Total is also a shareholder in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which provides export opportunities for oil production in the region.

While the exhibitions showcase the latest developments and projects in the energy sector, the Caspian Oil and Gas 2017 conference discusses topical issues oil and gas industry. Over 40 speakers, including leading experts, representatives of government agencies, heads of major oil and gas companies from different countries the world will make presentations on key issues of production, management and diversification of energy resources transportation.

Date: 05/06/2010

The irony of Armenian fate: “The Tatars of the Baku province come from different Turkic tribes who moved to this region during the invasions and administration of the region by the rulers of the Seljuk, Mongolian, Black and White Sheep, Turkmen and Safavid. These various tribes, when mixed with the former inhabitants of the region, both in eastern Transcaucasia and in the northern part of Persia, made up one common dialect of the Turkic language, the middle between Turkish (Ottoman Turks), Kumyk, Nogai and Jagatai. N. Seydlitz, Russian Caucasian scholar (“Lists of settlements of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus region. Baku province”, Tiflis, 1870, p. 85,87.)

“In Baku, as well as in the Baku province in general, Aderbeidzhan Tatars live most of all. They belong to the Mongolian race and the Turkic generation, they speak a dialect influenced by the Persian language. Supported by the Persian shahs, in the last century they moved from Aderbeidzhan to the southeastern part of Transcaucasia and to the coastal part from Baku to Derbent.

Caucasian calendar for 1908,
Tiflis, 1907, p. 71.

So, until 1918. the concept of "Azerbaijani" did not exist, everyone called them Tatars or Muslims.
Azerbaijan in Persian means: azer - fire and baidzhan - country, that is, the country of fire.
Baku - (from the Armenian word bagin - temple, altar). The connection with fire is again evident.

In the VI century. BC there was a cult of fire. The temples of fire worshipers existed until 624, when the Georgian king Heraclius went on a campaign against the Persians through the Mugan steppes and destroyed them, but 12 years later these altars were restored after the conquest of Persia by the Arabs.
According to the Arab historian Istarkhie, in the 8th century, local residents used oil-soaked land instead of firewood (Review of the Baku oil industry for two years of nationalization 1920-1922, p. 11.).
An Arabic inscription engraved on a stone was found in one of the oil wells, according to which this well was discovered by Allah-Yar, the son of Muhammad-Nur, in 1594 and given to the seids for use (Collection of information about the Caucasus, vol. II, Tiflis, 1872, p. 23.).
Anania Shirakatsi (7th century) in her famous “Ashkharatsuyts” (“Geographical Atlas of the World”) indicates the minerals and natural resources of Big Hayk: iron, coal, oil, salak, dzikhk, coke, smoky quartz, arsenic, salts, hot mineral sources.
Since the 18th century, Russia began to pursue an expansionist policy in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. In 1801 Georgia was conquered, and according to the Gulistan Treaty concluded on October 12, 1813, Karabakh, Baku, Sheki (Nukhin), Shirvan (Shemakhi), Derbent, Cuban and Talysh khanates were transferred from Persia to Russia (Ganja Khanate came under the protectorate of Russia since 1804) . The conquest of Transcaucasia by Russia (including the Erivan Khanate in 1827) was not only a huge military and political event, but also opened up wide opportunities for economic development. Absolutely new economic relations arose in the region... Transcaucasia entered into direct relations with Russia, a vast country with a relatively higher cultural level. Here, a large contingent was established, consisting of Russian officials and the military, who, as consumers, put forward new requirements for the trade of the region.
The Russian contingent - officials and the military did not act as an economic entity, and the implementation economic activity in the region took place through the three main peoples of Transcaucasia: Armenians, Georgians and Tatars (i.e. Azerbaijanis). The main form of economic management of the Russian authorities was a contract, and it was the Armenians who became contractors, thereby entering the stage of formation of the initial capital of the Eastern Armenians.

Immediately after the conclusion of the Gulistan Treaty, the Russian authorities paid close attention to Baku oil. In 1813-1825. oil and salt production was farmed out, bringing the treasury an annual income of 130 thousand rubles (77% of oil, 23% of salt). It should be noted that at that time oil did not have any industrial value, it was used for lighting purposes, lubricating skin, wheels, and for treating livestock from skin diseases. The first attempt to refine oil dates back to 1823: the serf Countess Panina, the Dubinin brothers from the Vladimir region, founded a production facility in Mozdok “to turn black oil into white oil”. The resulting "photogen" - kerosene, began to be exported to Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, but no attention was paid to it (Review of the Baku oil industry for two years of nationalization 1920-1922, p. 9).
In 1825, the government began to independently manage the oil fields, but failed - revenues fell to 76 thousand rubles. The following year, the state abandoned its monopoly and leased the oil lands to the Azerbaijanis. In 1826-1832. the income received by the local residents was so meager that the government again took up oil production on its own. But again, unsuccessfully: the annual income from oil wells and salt mines averaged 100 thousand rubles, and this forced the state from 1850 to completely abandon production and switch to a system of contracts.
In 1850-1854. Tiflis merchants Kukudzhanyan, Babanasyan and General Ter-Ghukasyan became the largest contractors, paying 110,000 rubles in annual rent. In 1854-1863. the largest contractor was Ter-Ghukasyan with 117 thousand rubles, in 1863-1867. - Hov. Mirzoyan with 162 thousand, and in 1867-1873. - the same Mirzoyan, but already with 136 thousand rubles of payment (St. Gulishambarov, “Essay on the development and state of the art oil industry of the Baku region "- Collection of information about the Caucasus, vol. VII, Tiflis, 1880, p. 333).

According to official data, in 1846 the entire trade of Transcaucasia with Russia was in the hands of the Armenians, and its turnover was 5,534,600 rubles. The lease of Baku oil lands since 1850 testified that the representatives of the Armenian merchant capital enriched by various contracts, seeking to find new areas for investment and showing foresight, reoriented and moved into the oil industry, which is still in its infancy, which they themselves must have been developed.
... Oil was obtained from wells - funnel-shaped pits 25-30 meters deep, which began to deepen. Oil came out with water, but, being lighter, floated to the surface. It was collected, poured into wineskins and transported on ox-drawn carts, donkeys or camels.

There were not rare cases when oil mixed with gas gushed out of the ground, immediately enriching the owner of the site (in 1877, such a fountain clogged from a well owned by Hov. Mirzoyan, and, amazingly, this fountain did not dry up for 7 whole years).

The resulting so-called crude oil had a very narrow scope; this oil had to be processed, and the first attempt of this kind was made by a representative of Russian merchant capital, the entrepreneur Kokorev, who in 1857. founded a distillery in Surakhani, and in 1863. received a "light lighting product" - kerosene. In 1862 the kerosene plant was founded by A. Vermishyan, in 1863 by J. Melikyan, in 1865 by Tatosyan, in 1869 by Ter-Hakopyan and Sharabandyan, in 1870 by Kalantaryan, in 1871 by Dildaryan and Tarayan. Thus, the oil industry was founded in the truest sense of the word.
But what was Baku like then? In 1851, Spassky-Avtomonov, who visited the city, wrote: “The city consists of extremely crooked and cramped alleys, along which you can only walk or hardly ride on horseback. The squares are small and uneven, the market street is also narrow, the shops are badly arranged. All the houses in the fortress and on the suburb 1992, 505 shops, 23 streets, 3 squares and 2 bridges. There are no factories, there are no commercial establishments. There are 294 all local merchants, of which 75 are shipowners, 67 who sell factory, factory and manufactory products, 231 other goods, 28 merchants from other cities, 2 Persian subjects ”(Caucasian calendar for 1852, Tiflis, 1851, p. 304, 306).

The provincial city of the Caspian province, founded in the 6th century by the Persian Shah Nushirvan, on November 6, 1859, became the administrative center of the Baku province founded at the same time.
The oil industry has evolved...
Despite the fact that the farming system brought significant benefits to the empire (suffice it to mention that if in 1863 340 thousand were produced, then in 1872 - 1.535.981 pounds of oil), however, this system had a significant drawback - its temporary , time-limited nature. According to established order, the oil field was leased for four years, and its owner, naturally, was not interested in making large investments, drilling new wells, conducting geological exploration, because after the lease expired, someone else could pay a big price and own the field. This circumstance clearly interfered with the development of the oil industry, meanwhile, the empire was on an economic upswing and needed large volumes of oil and oil products, and the leading position in Russian market occupied by American oil. It was under these conditions that the Russian government took a radical, revolutionary, economically reasonable step: it decided to sell the oil fields to private ownership. This was an extremely important event, which later played a huge role from the political, economic, and social points of view, as well as in the aspect of interethnic relations.

In November 1872, the government put up for auction 68 oil fields with total area 460 acres, setting the starting price at 552.240 rubles. The results of the auction are stunning: instead of the starting price, the state treasury received 2,980,307 rubles. The owners were 12 Russians who paid 1,485,860 rubles (1,333,328 rubles for 60 acres were paid by Kokorev and Gubonin), 11 Armenians (Hov. Hakobyan, Sargsyan brothers) and one Armenian company - "Partners" (founders Bogdan Dolukhanyan, Minas Kachkachyan, S. Kvitko) who paid 1,459,182 rubles. Hov. Mirzoyan alone - 1 million 220 thousand for 40 acres.

Hovhannes Minasovich Mirzoyan (Ivan Minaevich Mirzoev) was a typical representative of the Armenian commercial capital. He was the first in the entire Caucasus to see the prospects of the oil industry, he became the first oil industrialist and one of the "fathers" of the Baku oil business. Initially, he was engaged in activities that have centuries-old traditions among the Armenian merchants - the trade in raw silk. In 1853 he had a cotton shop. Then he founded a silk factory in the city of Nukha and earned a lot of capital. In 1855, having paid the highest price - 312 thousand rubles a year, until 1863 he rented the Salyan fishery located at the mouth of the Kura, which flows into the Caspian Sea, where 2500 people worked. In addition to Baku, since 1867 he rented the Kaitago-Tabasaran oil field. In 1865-188, paying annually 13,250 rubles, he rented only two oil wells discovered in Grozny, brought the productivity to 66,500 pounds, founded a kerosene plant, which was mainly worked by Armenians. In addition, in 1878-1886. for an annual fee of 7,850 rubles, he rented and operated the Zagliki alum plant in the Elizavetpol province (Caucasian calendar for 1878, Tiflis, 1877, p. 210).

The activities of Hov. Mirzoyan in the Baku oil industry can be characterized by the word "first". He was the first to establish two kerosene factories in Surakhani in 1868 and received 160,000 poods of kerosene worth 260,000 rubles. He also became the first exporter of kerosene. This was an unthinkable amount: suffice it to note that in that year all the other refineries together produced only 60 thousand pounds of kerosene for 64 thousand rubles. In 1867, Ov. Mirzoyan produced 665 thousand poods of oil, in 1868 - 716 thousand, in 1872 - 1 million 365 thousand poods, in 1871 he installed the first drilling rig in Balakhany, and in 1872 - the second (St. Gulishambarov , Essay on development ..., p. 345). It was after this that the oil owners switched to oil drilling, and in 1879 not a single oil well remained.

After the death of Hov. Mirzoyan (1885), his widow Daria and sons - temporary merchants of the Moscow 1st guild, the nobles Grigor and Melkon, as well as their daughter, Princess Maria Argutinskaya-Dolgorukaya, in 1886 founded the oil industrial and commercial partnership "Brothers Mirzoev and Co. with a fixed capital of 2.1 million rubles. As representatives of the aristocratic elite of Tiflis, the Mirzoyans prudently handed over the affairs of their firm to oil professionals. B. Korganyan was the chairman of the board of the partnership, the directors were D. Kharazyan, M. Dolukhanyan, Hov. Garsoyan, T. Enfiadzhyants, thanks to which the Mirzoev Brothers and Co. 15 million poods of oil per year (Yearbook "Baku and its regions" - 1912, Baku, p.140).
The company owned oil fields in Balakhani and Sabunchi, factory buildings in Surakhani, an oil pipeline in Balakhani, a kerosene and lubricating oil plant in Baku, as well as various workshops and a chemical laboratory, a pier on the coast of the Caspian Sea, 4 sailboats ("Moscow", "Arseny" , "Prussia", "San-Dadash"), production facilities in Batumi, oil product warehouses in Moscow, Tsaritsyn and Nizhny Novgorod (Charter of the oil industrial and commercial partnership "Brothers Mirzoevgh and Co.", Tiflis, 1901). The Mirzoev Brothers & Co. firm remained one of the best Armenian-owned companies until the tragedy of 1918.

Let's go back to 1872 and ask ourselves: did Azerbaijanis participate in the auction? Yes, two. The first, Selimkhanov, paid 3,000 rubles for a plot with a starting price of 1 ruble and did not play any role in the oil industry. It is worth talking about the second of them, Haji Zeynal-Abdin Tagiyev, in more detail. During the entire pre-revolutionary period, there were three relatively large Azerbaijani oilmen (the other two were Musa Nagiev and Shamsi Asadullayev), but Tagiev was the only one who, having learned from Armenians, became a trustee of a number of Muslim educational institutions and built the building of the Baku theater.

Tagiyev's appearance in business was a curiosity. He was a craftsman, a bricklayer and, for unknown reasons, became a companion of the brothers Baghdasar and Poghos Sargsyans; they paid 14,961 rubles and became co-owners of 20 plots. In 1882, the brothers took part in the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition held in Moscow and were awarded a bronze medal for the produced kerosene. After that, the names of the Sargsyan brothers were almost never mentioned in the oil business, it is only known that P. Sarsisyan was a member of the Baku City Duma and was a member of the board of trustees of the male Armenian two-year school in Baku. His wife Elizaveta, being an ardent supporter of the ideas of one of the best periodicals in the history of the Armenian press - "Mshaka", named their ship after the founding editor of this publication: "Grigor Artsruni". Ironically, the Bolsheviks expropriated this ship and in 1921 handed it over to the state oil company Azneft.
So, from January 1, 1873, the first owners appeared in the Baku oil industry, who could dispose of their oil at their own discretion, sell plots, lease them, conclude various transactions, establish joint-stock companies, etc. This privatization caused not only an "oil fever", but also served as an impetus for large financial investment, rapid population growth, rapid development of the city.
If in 1813-1873. were the period of origin, the formation of the oil industry, then 1873-1899. became an era of gigantic progress, which outlined the trends in the development of geopolitical interests and interethnic relations. Trends that intensified with every pound of extracted, processed and exported oil.
If in 1850 260 thousand pounds were mined, in 1863. - 340 thousand, then in 1872 - 1.535.981 pounds, and in 1896 - 386 million. If in 1862 there were 13.392 inhabitants in Baku, in 1873 - 15.604, then in 1886 in the city 83 thousand people lived, and in 1897 - 104 thousand.

Privatization created a situation that gave economic freedom and guaranteed stable high returns on investment. This caused not only the influx of financial investments into the oil industry from all over the Transcaucasus and Russia, but also the fact that Baku became the residence of representatives of the most different peoples owing to which the city became multinational.
The prospects for the oil industry were noticed by the largest representatives of Russian capital of that time, especially the Russian subjects of the Swedes, the Nobel brothers, who created more than 30 industrial enterprises in Russia. In 1875, they bought a small kerosene plant in Baku, oil fields, and carried out preparatory work with European thoroughness for 4 years. Since 1879, the Nobel Brothers company has founded a huge modern complex for the extraction, processing and export of oil, with many auxiliary infrastructures, which, in terms of its economic indicators, occupied a leading place in the oil industry of Baku ... Until Stepan Lianosyan appeared.

In 1877 Russian government took a new radical, economically justified step: the excise tax was removed from the oil industry, as a result of which the price of oil decreased by about three times, and in 1883 American oil was completely ousted from the Russian market. The world is "divided" between two oil-producing countries - the United States and Russia (that is, Baku).
As rightly noted in one of the sources, “none of the branches of Russian industry played such a significant role in the world capitalist economy as the oil industry: until the beginning of the 20th century. the Baku region was one of the two main centers of world oil production (along with the oil regions of the USA) ”(Monopolistic capital in the oil industry of Russia (1883-1914). Documents and materials, M.-L., 1961, p. 8- nine). This division later had the most serious military-political and economic consequences.
In 1885, the first steps in the oil industry were taken by one of the largest banking firms in Europe - the Rothschild Brothers Paris banking house, which is engaged in providing a state loan to the Russian Empire in France. Thanks to their powerful capital, the Rothschilds acquired numerous oil fields, built processing plants, warehouses in Baku and became leaders in exports. And their "Caspian-Black Sea Society" consistently ranked second in terms of economic indicators.
The fourth place in the oil industry hierarchy was occupied by the "Caspian Partnership" company, founded by Karabakh residents Poghos, Arshak, Hakob and Abram Ghukasyans.
In 1878, residents of Shushi Samvel Bagiryan and Harutyun (Artem) Madatyan, united with Bruno de Boer, founded an oil and trading company"Caspian partnership". In the same 1878, 20-year-old Poghos Ghukasyan, who received a secondary education, arrived in Baku from Karabakh. He quickly orients himself in the oil business, thanks to his innate sharpness he foresees the prospects of the oil industry and for 27 thousand rubles he buys out first the share of S. Bagiryan, and then A. Madatyan, and he himself becomes a partner of Bruno de Boer. Their business flourishes and develops in such a way that after 9 years it begins to occupy a leading position in the oil industry. In 1886 the company was transformed into joint-stock company with a fixed capital of 2 million rubles. During this time, after graduating from school, the Pogos brothers Arshak, Hakob and Abram come to Baku. In 1888, after the death of Bruno de Boer, the brothers, together with their relative Ov. Ter-Markosyan become the full owners of the Caspian Partnership.

On January 24, 1884, a significant event took place: the body "Congress of Baku Oil Industrialists" (SBN) was created - the first branch, corporate body throughout Russia. In 1890, P. Ghukasyan (Pavel Osipovich Gukasov) was elected chairman of the council of the RLS, and in 1896 he “ceded” this position to Arshak, who led this organization with great professionalism until the end of 1918.
P. Ghukasyan together with S. Yakovlev in 1897. founded the Caspian Pipeline with a fixed capital of 1 million rubles. This firm, located on Staro-Policeyskaya Street in Baku, was one of the first to sell various imported machine tools, pipes, rolled metal, motors, and power plants for the oil industry. Poghos Ghukasyan was appointed one of the directors of the Maykop oil industrial and trading company "Colchis" and, in fact, was the first Armenian who, in the late XIX - early XX centuries. became a global industrialist. When the State Council of Russia was formed in 1906, 12 seats were given to the industrial and commercial curia of the country. The authority of P. Ghukasyan, his indisputable contribution were so great that he was elected a member of this supreme body and moved to the capital.
When in 1902 P. Ghukasyan and Al. Mantashyants founded the Homelight Oil Co company in England, Abram Ghukasyan settled in London as a permanent representative of the company.
Summarizing the period of formation of the Baku oil industry in 1873-1899, one circumstance should be noted: in 1889, 69 oil companies were registered in Baku, of which 12 (including 9 Armenian and 1 Azerbaijani) were not engaged in oil production. The remaining 57 companies in the aggregate produced 192,247,663 poods of oil. Of these companies, 34 were Armenian, which produced 93.891.585 poods of oil. There were only 3 Azerbaijanis, who received 14.472.370 pounds, and only Tagiev extracted 13.981.105 pounds.

And now let's turn to the figure of a man, without whom it is impossible to get an idea of ​​either the Baku or the world oil industry. A person without whom it is impossible to get an idea of ​​the essence of an Armenian, his enterprise and diligence. Without which the history of the Armenian people would be incomplete.
It's about Alexander Ovanesovich Mantashyants (1842-1911).
One of the closest associates of the Armenian "oil king" Arakel Sarukhan, who in 1921 managed to escape from Bolshevik Baku and ended up in Vienna with the Mekhitarists, took up Armenian studies and created a number of valuable works. In 1931, he published a book in which he expressed his boundless love and respect for Mantashyants. A.Sarukhan begins his memoirs with the following lines: “I am writing Mantashyants (with a “c” at the end), because the deceased signed in Armenian “Mantashyants”, and in Russian, according to the custom, Mantashev, also in foreign languages- Mantacheff.

The life and work of one of the greatest figures of Armenian business - Al. Mantashyants, worthy of a serious, thorough, thorough monograph, cannot be perceived without Baku oil.
At the beginning of 1889, Mikael Aramyants, a resident of Shushi, who, together with his compatriots - Karabakh residents A. Tsaturyan, G. Arafelyan and G. Tumayan, was a co-owner of the oil company "A. Tsaturov and others", arrived in Tiflis and asked the vice-chairman (with 1890 chairman for life) and largest shareholder the best Commercial Bank in the Caucasus Al. Mantashyants loan for the purchase of tank cars. This request was not accidental: Aramyants and Mantashyants knew each other from a young age, when they were engaged in manufacturing trade in Tabriz - the first was an assistant to the merchant Tarumyan, the second - to his father.
Al. Mantashyants, who had long noticed the prospects of oil, offered M. Aramyants his own funds (50 thousand rubles), but on the condition that he would become a partner in their company. So it was decided, and Al. Mantashyants entered the Baku oil industry under the banner of the firm "Trading House A.I. Mantashev."
Already on November 27 of the same year, on behalf of the V Congress of Oil Industrialists, he submitted a memorandum to the department of non-reimbursable fees of the Ministry of Finance, in which, subjecting him to the most serious economic analysis and comparing the Russian and American oil industries, proposed a number of measures through which Baku oil could dominate the world market. Mantashyants himself exported more than 2 million pounds. kerosene a year to England and owned two sea tankers that sailed between Batum and London and even to America.
This report was a kind of " calling card”: a large-scale personality appeared in the Baku oil industry, rallying all small and large Armenian oil industrialists around him, becoming their leader, partner, assistant, stronghold and forming the concept that we define as “Armenian oil”. A new player appeared on the scene, who was supposed to nullify all the attempts of the Nobels and the Rothschilds to monopolize the oil industry, and he had to achieve this solely through economic competition. He appeared, without taking into account the opinion of which it was impossible to solve a single issue.
According to data for September 1889, the "Caspian-Black Sea Society" of the Rothschilds had a monopoly on exports from Batumi. On a contractual basis, it received 2280 tanks of kerosene (there were 4195 tanks in total) from 50 oil companies and sold it on foreign markets. Al.Mantashyants built a plant for the production of metal boxes in Batumi and only in 1898 exported 3.2 million poods of oil to them (in 1896, 13 companies exported oil and oil products from Batumi, 4 of which belonged to Armenians. Al. Mantashyants was second only to the Rothschilds and Nobels). In November-March 1892, negotiations were held in Rostov-on-Don, in which 7 largest companies producing kerosene took part: Nobel Brothers, P. Gukasyan's Caspian Partnership, S.M. Shibaev and Co., as well as members of the "Baku Standard" association created a year before - Mantashyants, G. Lianosyan, Budagyan and Tagiyev. Together, these firms annually produced approximately 44 million poods of kerosene, of which 17 million were produced by the Nobel Brothers. The purpose of the negotiations was the creation of the Union of Baku Kerosene Planters, the actual owner of which would be the Nobel Brothers firm. Realizing that the monopoly of the export of kerosene would pass to the Nobels and the Rothschilds acting hand in hand, Al. Mantashyants refused to join this alliance. Moreover, together with other Armenian breeders, he created an independent association, whose members on November 27, 1893 came to a separate agreement and concluded the “Agreement of the second group of the Union of Baku Kerosene Manufacturers”. This was a serious blow to the monopoly aspirations of the Nobels and Rothschilds, which is why in February 1894 an agreement was reached between the first and second groups on joint activities on foreign market provided that each group has sufficient autonomy. At the same time, an agreement was signed between the Armenian group of Al. Mantashyants and the Union of Baku Kerosene Planters, according to which foreign markets were divided among Russian exporters. That is, it is obvious that thanks to Al. Mantashyants, Armenian breeders got the opportunity to freely enter the world market. Only after that, on March 2, 1895, E. Nobel and the representative of Standard Oil, W. Libby, concluded a preliminary agreement on the division of the world oil market. According to this agreement, the United States got 75% of the supply of petroleum products, Russia - 25%. One more important circumstance should not be overlooked: energy resources - specifically oil and oil products, have not yet been levers of influence in international politics, since agreements were concluded not by countries, but by firms. And in this sphere the Armenian oilmen played a huge role.
The deafening appearance of Al. Mantashyants in the oil industry was due to several main factors: firstly, as the chairman of the board of the largest financial institution in the Caucasus - the Tiflis Commercial Bank, he disposed of significant financial resources, and the oil industry constantly needed more and more new investments. Secondly, being in constant communication and contacts with Europe (in particular, in Manchester and Paris), Al. Mantashyants in practice mastered modern methods and mechanisms of business management. The third factor was his purely human dignity, manifested in deep patriotism and kind, warm, tolerant attitude towards representatives of other nationalities, as well as towards competitors.
Al. Mantashyants' business required new development, and having paid a large sum to his partners, he became practically the sole owner of the company, leaving only M. Aramyants as a partner.
Al. Mantashyants owns 75% of the shares of the future company, M. Aramyants - 25%, and the latter could not interfere in the business and did not receive profit from foreign transactions. This allowed M. Aramyants not to delve into the most difficult ups and downs of the oil business, to live a secure and carefree life. In the future, he will sell his luxurious mansion in Baku, and with 10 million rubles he will move to Tiflis - becoming one of the city's famous benefactors. Years will pass, and he will take part in the funeral of his close friend Al. Mantashyants, and he himself will die in 1922 in the capital of Bolshevik Georgia, ironically deprived of all his fortune and elementary living conditions, in utter poverty...

So, June 11, 1899. The charter of the joint-stock oil industrial and trading company "A.I. Mantashev and K" was approved, according to which the founders of the company were the Tiflis 1st guild merchant Al.Mantashyants, the Baku 1st guild merchant M.Aramyants, and the fixed capital was 22 million rubles. rubles (88,000 shares of 250 rubles each). According to paragraph 22 of the charter, the company was managed by a board of directors consisting of 5 people, elected by general meeting shareholders (Charter of the oil-industrial and trading company "A.I. Mantashev and Co.", St. Petersburg, 1899).
The firm had 173 acres of oil-bearing lands in Balakhany, Sabunchi, Romany, Zabrat, Bibi-Heybat and other places of the Absheron Peninsula. Moreover, 147.7 acres of these lands were the property of the company, and it rented the remaining plots.
The company also owned: in the Black City - a kerosene plant with storage facilities for oil and fuel oil, in the White City - a lubricating oil plant, which had a 100-sazhen pier and an elevator for pumping oil, in Zabrat - a special mechanical workshop and a 50-verst oil pipeline, in Batumi - a plant for the production of metal and wooden boxes, as well as storage of kerosene and lubricating oils and a pumping station. There was also an oil-exporting station in Odessa, with 100 tank cars that circulated along Russia's southwestern railways. Finally, the firm also had offices, agencies and warehouses in Smyrna, Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Alexandria, Cairo, Port Said, Damiet, Marseilles, London, Bombay and Shanghai.
The company's oil production was displayed in the following figures: in 1895 - 30 million poods, in 1896 - 31.5 million, in 1897 - 48 million, in 1898 - 52 million. A.I. Mantashev and Co. for 10 years (1899-1909) continued to be the largest in the Russian oil industry.
This is how an industrial giant appeared, which ranked third in terms of its economic indicators, but if we take into account that A.I. position and played a decisive role.
A new most difficult period began in the Baku oil industry, which was supposed to mark unimaginable geopolitical developments, predetermine the future of Transcaucasia, and influence the fate of the eastern Armenians.
This period had four characteristics: a) the rapid development of the oil industry, due to the introduction of foreign capital, b) the revolutionary proletarian movement, c) the First World War d) interethnic conflicts.
With each new pound of oil produced, the oil industry looked more and more like Kronos devouring his own children.
As we have already noted, the world was "divided" between two oil superpowers: the US and Russia. Moreover, the latter, except for Baku, had no other oil deposits and at the beginning of the 20th century. received an annual income of 100 million rubles from oil production. However, the increase in fuel and energy demand, due to both civilian and military factors, forced the European countries represented by England, France and Germany to pay close attention to Baku. The most active were the British.
British capital entered the Baku oil industry from the end of the 1890s, when prices for oil and oil products, especially kerosene, jumped on the world market. To seize the Caucasian oil fields in 1897-1901. in the City of London, 10 companies were created with a fixed capital of 53 million rubles. Six of them founded a group headed by one of the directors of the Bank of England - E. Hubbard, which included G. Gladstone, D. Kitson, C. Moore, W. Johnson, K. and W. Werner.
Let us recall the Azerbaijani Tagiev mentioned above. At the end of 1897, the British offered him to sell his business. Tagiyev demanded 5 million rubles for his oil-bearing lands in Bibi-Heybat, a kerosene-lubricating and carbon dioxide plant, an oil pipeline, an oil-loading flotilla and a train of railway tanks, although he spent 200 thousand rubles on all this and had long ago received several times more profit. The British agreed, but on the condition that they would first pay 500 thousand rubles at a time, and the remaining amount would be paid in installments over several years. The deal went through, resulting in the creation of the "Society for the Extraction of Russian Oil and Liquid Fuels" (abbreviated as "Oleum") with a fixed capital of 1.2 million pounds sterling, and Tagiev was out of business. active business. However, the curiosity was that one of the wells went “furious” and began to gush 15 tons of oil daily: it was from the sale of oil from this drilling rig that the British paid the remaining 4.5 million rubles to the Azerbaijani ... E. Hubbard's group in 1898 For 7 million rubles, she bought up the firms of G. Arafelyan, the Budagyan brothers and the Adamyan brothers and created the Baku Russian Oil Society with a fixed capital of 1.5 million pounds sterling. Then, for 2.3 million rubles, she acquired the enterprises of A. Tsaturyan and B. de Boer, on the basis of which in 1899 she created the European Oil Company, the fixed capital of which amounted to 1.1 million pounds sterling. The same group simultaneously founded the "United Russian Oil Company" with a fixed capital of 200 thousand pounds sterling, the "Baku (Zabrat) Kerosene Society" with 50 thousand pounds sterling of fixed capital and the "Kalantarovsk (Baku) Oil Company" with a fixed capital of 50 thousand pounds sterling.
Another group of British capitalists acted under the leadership of F. Lane, the managing director of the large English kerosene export company Lane and Macandrew. In February 1898, this group bought a controlling stake in the company S.M. Shibaev and Co. from two Dutch banks and founded the Shebayev Oil Company with limited liability» with a fixed capital of 750 thousand pounds. Thus, only for 1898-1901. the British invested 4.1 million pounds sterling in the Baku oil industry.
The interests of France were indirectly represented by the Rothschild company. Even Belgian capital has infiltrated the Russian oil industry, controlling the Grozny firm A.I. Akhverdov & Co.
All this testified to one thing: the introduction of foreign capital, on the one hand, opened up wide opportunities for international cooperation, effective management, on the other hand, it turned Baku oil into an instrument of a big geopolitical game.
tributary financial resources became the basis of rapid development, and in 1901. a record amount of oil was produced - more than 706 million poods. As the source notes: “By 1901, when the oil industry of Russia reached the climax of its development, more than a quarter of the entire production of the Baku region and about 40% of the kerosene produced here were concentrated in the hands of Nobel, Rothschild and Mantashev. The share of three firms in export was even higher: they owned about half of all oil products sent inside Russia (including over a third - to Nobel alone), and almost 70% of export from Batum abroad.
It was this “triad” that, jointly and separately, acted on the international market. But Al. Mantashyants did not forget his compatriots. In 1902, together with P. Ghukasyan, he founded the Homlight Oil company in London, and in the same year, together with the same P. Ghukasyan, the Nobels, the Rothschilds and the Tokam-Oleum company, he created the Deutsche-Russiche company in Germany Naphta Import Gasellschaft.
However, difficult times have come for the Baku oil industry, due to unregulated fluctuations in prices on the world oil market and the strike movement of workers in Baku itself, which gradually brought the situation to a crisis. In 1902, 136 enterprises produced 636,528,852 poods of oil, and 24 leading firms - 521 million poods. Of these 24 firms, 13 were Armenian and extracted 203 million poods, or 39% of the total, with 51,946,779 poods mined by Al. Mantashyants.

In 1903, when workers' strikes began in Baku, the volume of production dropped to 597 million poods. In 1904 production increased slightly: 143 firms received 614,810,930 poods of oil, with 34 firms accounting for 279,467 thousand poods and 9 firms for 335,345 thousand poods. The share of four of these 9 firms was 34.5% of the total production. These were the “Nobel Brothers” (74.892 thousand), the “Caspian-Black Sea Society” of the Rothschilds (53.351 thousand), “A.I. oil industry for 1904, vol. I, Baku, 1905, p. 82).
After that, production steadily fell, and in the year of Russia's economic upsurge, 1913, it amounted to only 560 million poods. As a result, Russia lost its leadership in the world oil industry: if in 1901 its specific gravity was 51.6%, then in 1913 it was only 18.1%. And, conversely, the share of the United States increased: from 39.8% in 1901 to 62.2% in 1913.
Quality, fundamental new stage in the oil industry of Baku began ... with the death of two people: in 1906, the merchant of the Moscow 1st guild, the owner of one of the oldest oil companies - the Russian Oil Industrial Society (RUNO), Gevork Lianosyan, died, and in 1911 - Alexander Mantashyants. They were replaced by their sons - Levon Mantashyants and Stepan Lianosyan (Stepan Georgievich Lianozov, 1872-1951). The latter was to surpass everyone, to become the "king" of the world oil industry. However, a deep tragedy fell to his lot, and a regrettable, unjustified oblivion.
It all started in 1872 when the oil fields were put up for auction. A native of Persia, the Astrakhan 1st guild merchant Stepan Martynovich Lianosyan paid 26.220 rubles instead of the starting price of 1310 rubles and became the owner of the 7th plot with 6 oil wells, with an estimated productivity of only 4599 pounds. This step of his was not so much a foresight of the prospects of the oil industry as an ordinary financial investment: he bought land, his own plot, as a result of which a company with the chic name "RUNO" was created. But S.M. Lianosyan had a wider range of interests: a year later, in 1873, he received a concession from the Shah's government, giving the monopoly right to fish in the mouths of the Persian rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea. The contract was concluded for 5 years, but was repeatedly renewed. Fishing was carried out in five regions: Astara, Anzeli, Sefidrud, Mashadiser and Astrabad, each of which specialized in the production of certain types of fish.

After the death of S. Lianosyan, the business was inherited by his brother Gevork, who turned to the tsarist government with a request to lease the coastal waters of the Caspian Sea (according to the Turkmenchay Treaty, the Caspian Sea belonged to Russia). On March 22, 1900 G. Lianosyan and the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property of Russia concluded an agreement for a period of 25 years (After 1917 this agreement will be terminated...).
Thus, G. Lianosyan became the largest industrialist of fish and seafood in the coastal waters of the Caspian Sea and the mouths of the rivers flowing into it. If in the 90s of the nineteenth century. the gross product of fishing firms annually averaged 600 thousand rubles, then in the period from the end of the century to 1906. it reached 900 thousand rubles, and in 1907-1915. - 2.25 million rubles. On the eve of the First World War, the fishing industry of the brothers Martyn, Stepan, Levon Lianosyan was a modern industrial enterprise equipped with the latest technology. These included power plants, refrigeration facilities, telephone communications, mechanical and other workshops, as well as a flotilla of 20 boats, including two large steamships, one of which was called "Pirogov", and the second was named after the grandfather of its owners - "Martyn". 5,900 people worked in the fishery, on the eve of the war, capital investments amounted to about 3 million 380 thousand francs, and in 1916 - 9 million rubles. Thus, the fishing enterprises of the Lianosyans were the largest in Persia. industrial enterprises until 1909, when the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was created.

Let's leave the "fish" topic and talk about oil. Under G. Lianosyan, RUNO was a medium-sized company. After the death of his father, Stepan Lianosyan plunged headlong into oil, as a result of which a new era began in the world oil industry.

The following observation is extremely important here: the first generation of Armenian oil producers (and merchants in general) had one characteristic feature - patriarchy, which had its own logical explanation. The preservation of property dictated the need to attract trusted persons to the business: sons, close relatives, compatriots (Shusha, Shemakha, Tiflis, etc.). That is, the business was national in the truest sense of the word. Such were dozens of companies: the Mirzoyan brothers, the Adamyan brothers, Amur, Anahit, Aramazd, Vanand, Vorotan, the Gukasyan brothers, the Tumanyants brothers, the Krasilnikov brothers and many others, the listing of which alone would take up a lot of space. .
Even the great Mantashyants, who was well aware of the need for a constant infusion of more and more new investments in the oil industry, was the banking "king" of the Caucasus, a member of the board of two large St. Petersburg banks - even he still did not allow strangers to manage his business: in 1909. the board of his company included his son Levon, relatives David Kharazyan, Gevork Shaumyan, the already mentioned Arakel Sarukhan and S. Cherkezov, whose brother at that time was the mayor of his hometown Tiflis.
In fact, “closed business territories” were created, which caused jealousy and obvious dissatisfaction among representatives of other nationalities (primarily Russians and Azerbaijanis), on the other hand, the development of the business itself was hampered.
S. Lianosyan was the first to break this stereotype of thinking, the first to point out to his compatriots by his activity that the national nature of business leads to a dead end, and the result of business - capital - should be national.
In 1907, he created in St. Petersburg a joint-stock company "G.M. Lianozova sons" with a fixed capital of 2 million rubles, of which he himself was the managing director, and included P. Lezhdnovsky and one of the largest entrepreneurs of the Russian empire on the board - the owner of the St. Petersburg mechanical and iron foundry joint-stock company "Putilovskiy Zavod" A. Putilov.
In addition to oil-bearing lands, the partnership owned the following enterprises: in Baku, in the White City, - kerosene and oil factories, storage tanks for kerosene and fuel oil; on the shores of the Caspian Sea - an oil loading pier, a 10-verst oil pipeline, in Batumi - tanks and storage facilities. With the involvement of representatives of big Russian capital, S. Lianosyan quickly achieved success: in 1907 he produced 240.7 thousand poods of oil, in 1908 - 1.168 thousand, in 1909 - 2.173 thousand, in 1910 - 2.133 thousand. pounds.

But that was only the beginning. One more person was supposed to join the "oil game", with the direct support and cooperation with whom S. Lianosyan was to conquer the world market. That person was Levon Mantashyants (Leon Mantashev). The one who adhered to the same principles as S. Lianosyan.
We believe that between these two there was a purely Armenian gentlemen's agreement, the loyalty of which they kept to the end.
In 1912, thanks to S. Lianosyan, the world oil industry entered a completely new stage of its development: on July 28 of this year, he created the Russian General Oil Corporation in London with a fixed capital of 2, £5 million. Here is the composition of this corporation: the chairman of the board of the Russian-Asian Bank A. Putilov (chairman), the chairman of the board of the firms G.M. Lianozova sons and A.I. Mantashev and Co. S. Lianosyan (managing director) , chairman of the board of the Caspian Partnership P. Gukasyan, director of the St. Petersburg International Commercial Bank A. Vyshnegradsky and director of the Paris branch of this bank I. Radin, chairman of the board of the St. Petersburg private commercial bank A. Davidov and member of the board of the same bank Viscount de Bretel, chairman of the board of the Siberian Trade Bank M. Soloveichik, Chairman of the Board of the St. Petersburg Accounting and Loan Bank Y. Utin, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Bank for Foreign Trade A. Rafalovich, Managing Director of the Russian Commercial and Industrial Bank I. Kon, Director of the London Branch of the Russian-Asian Bank Sir Nichbold, Chairman of the Board of the Oil Company N. Glasberg, Member of the Parliament of England, Viscount Carrick (V.3iv, Foreign capitals in the Russian oil industry, 1916, p. 53.).
The similar composition of "Oil" gives rise to some reflections. Firstly, it included the leading Baku oil companies - three Armenian and one Russian, the elite of Russian banking capital, representatives of the high society of English society, but there were no Nobels and Rothschilds.
As noted by the well-known economist V. Ziv: "This trust made a complete revolution in the Russian oil industry." What was the essence of this revolution? economic characteristic? What did S. Lianosyan achieve?
S. Lianosyan's personal contribution was that he managed to do what no one before him could do: he made Baku's oil industry attractive to foreigners and laid the foundation for grandiose investments of foreign capital. In 1912, in England, he founded the British Lianosoff Wife Oil Sotrapu company, in France - La Lianosoff Frangais, and in 1913, together with German capitalists with a fixed capital of 1 million marks, he created the Deutsche Lianozoff company in Hamburg Mineralol Import Act. Ges”, the purpose of which was to import Russian (that is, Baku) oil and oil products into Germany, process them and sell them. To implement all these plans, S. Lianosyan attracted major European financial institutions: banks "O.A. Rosenberg and K" (Paris), "L. Dreyfus and K °" (Paris), B. Margulies (Brussels). That is, on the basis of the oil business, he united Russian and European financial capital. Of the 16 international financial syndicates, 10 had shares in the Russian oil industry for a huge amount - 363.56 million rubles.
The production and economic support of "Oil" was the firm "A.I. Mantashev and K" - this company served as a guarantee of the creation of the corporation. After the death of Al. Mantashyants, already in July 1912, his sons concluded an agreement: most they sold their shares to St. Petersburg banks, the headquarters of the department was transferred from Baku to the capital, after which Oil was born, whose shares were quoted on the stock exchanges of Paris, London, Amsterdam, Brussels and, of course, St. Petersburg.

With the creation of Oil, the global oil industry has been transformed, polarized, elicited adequate responses, and set the stage for Her Majesty Politics. And this meant new rules of the game and new players. One of them was the Royal Dutch Shell and its Lianosian, Henry Deterding.
On the islands of Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Borneo) - one of the largest oil-producing states of the modern world, the oil industry has been established since 1887. A number of Dutch oil companies, among which stood out founded in 1890 "Royal company for oil production in the Netherlands India" (later - "Royal Datch C °"). It was notable for its vigorous activity: in 1897, having a fixed capital of 5 million florins, it paid shareholders a 55% dividend. In 1896 commercial director"Royal Datch C °" was G. Deterding, who in 1901 became the chairman of the board of the company and its full owner. In 1907, he merged his company with the powerful Shell Transport and Trading Company. and trading C °), created the Royal Dutch Shell company, one of the world's oil monopolies, 60% of whose shares belonged to him. When in 1911 the English fleet switched to oil products, G. Deterding realized that he could become one of the most influential people in the world, and declared: “The army, navy, all the gold in the world and all peoples are powerless against the owners of oil. Who needs cars and motorcycles, ships, tanks and planes without this precious black liquid? He began to pursue an aggressive policy: to acquire all new oil fields, as well as shares of various European, Asian, African and American companies. Suffice it to say that G. Deterding bought up the oil fields in the states of Oklahoma and California and in 1915 controlled 1/9 of the US oil industry.
One of the first "victims" of Deterding was the Russian oil industry. In 1912, Royal Dutch Shell bought up 90% of the shares of the Caspian-Black Sea Society of the Rothschilds (for the amount of about 10 million rubles), as well as the Mazut company owned by them (fixed capital - 12 million rubles). In addition, it acquired a significant number of blocks of shares in a number of other Baku and Grozny enterprises. As a result, in 1915 Deterding owned approximately 15% of Russian oil production.

Thus, the world was "divided" between three oil giants - Rockefeller's Standard Oil, Deterding's Royal Dutch Shell and Lianosyan's Oil. Tough competition began and the struggle for oil markets intensified.
However, there was another power - Germany, which could not accept this state of affairs, to be out of the game, and it set its sights on the newly discovered oil lands of the Ottoman Empire. Those lands, in the discovery and exploitation of which the leading role belongs to Calouste Gulbenkian...

Since 1912, the world began to prepare for war, one of the main causes of which was oil. Soon the smell of oil and the smell of death will replace each other.
The insatiable jaws of the war were thirsty for oil, and in 1915 571.4 million poods were produced in Baku. The share of 17 companies included in Oil accounted for 114.4 million pounds (including the company A.I. Mantashev and Co. extracted 15.2, the Caspian Partnership - 14.6, G.M. Lianozova sons" - 12.8, "Brothers Mirzoev" - 8.1, "I.N. Ter-Akopov" - 6.0, "Aramazd" - 4.9, "I.E. Pitoev" - 2.7 , "Syunik" - 0.8 million).
The share of 8 firms included in the "Royal Dutch Shell" amounted to 91.8 million pounds. And 5 firms from the Nobel Brothers group - 79.7 million. In addition, 11 firms, mostly Armenian and not included in the mentioned groups, produced 113.3 million poods of oil.
There were also firms owned by Azerbaijanis. Asadullayev's firm produced 6.6 million poods, Nagiyev's - 4.1 million. Two years later, in 1913, 187 firms were registered in Baku, of which 65 were Armenian, 62 of which (information about 3 is missing) produced 136.895 .025 pounds. There were 39 Azerbaijani firms, and they extracted only 24,011,094 pounds. It is up to the reader to compare these figures and, consequently, evaluate the share of Azerbaijanis in the Baku oil industry.

One more area connected with the activities of Armenians in the oil industry should not be ignored - navigation in the Caspian Sea. Sea transportation of oil and oil products was a serious business. In 1889, transportation across the Caspian Sea was carried out by 34 steamships with a total carrying capacity of 1 million 330 thousand poods. Of these, 7 belonged to Armenians (“Vaspurakan” and “Evelina” Avetyan, “Rescuer” brothers Kolmanyants and Buniatyan, “Grigoryan” Parsadanyan, “Serezha”, “Arshak” and “Konstantin” Tumayan) - their total carrying capacity was 249.524 pounds (18.7%).
Three Azerbaijanis had 6 vessels with a carrying capacity of 192,270 pounds (14.4%).
In the same year, 20 special steamships were used, which carried exclusively kerosene. Their total carrying capacity was 750,000 poods, and 5 of them belonged to the Armenians (Armenyak of the Armenian Shipping Company, Rafael of Arafelyan, Admiral, Lazar, Konstantin Tumayan) with a carrying capacity of 156,820 poods. The Azerbaijanis did not have such ships.
In 1912, there were 66 ship owners and shipping companies in Baku, 14 of which were Armenians, owning 24 ships. These were: Hakob and Hovhannes Avetyans (“Menastan”), A. Adamyan (“Vaan”), “Armenian Shipping Company” (“Ashot Yerkat”, “Amasia”), the Buniatyan brothers (“Benardaki”, “Buniat”, “ Nikolai"), Volga Company ("Artsiv Vaspurakani"), Eastern Company of Warehouses ("Sevan", "Van"), Avetis Ghukasyan ("Tamara"), M. Ghukasyan ("Anna"), "Trans-Caspian Commercial and Industrial Company (Vaspurakan), Elizaveta Sargsyan (Grigor Artsruni), Sarukhan-Kura Joint-Stock Company (Sarukhan, Serezha), I.N. Ter-Akopov (Gadir -Guseinov"), Ter-Stepanyan and Kolmanyants ("Arshaluys"), H. Tumayan ("Tatiana") and the company "G.M. Lianozova sons" ("Worker", "Martyn", "Pirogov", "Brave" , "Sefidrud").
The largest shipping company on the Caspian Sea was, of course, the Russian company Kavkaz and Mercury. It is noteworthy that among her many ships there were steamships with the following names: "Armenian", "Ani", "Pambak", "Zang", "Mush", "Arag", "Grigoryan".
As for oil tankers, here the undeniable leadership belonged to the Nobel Brothers company, and the best vessel on the Caspian Sea was their steamship K. Hagelin.
Having as scrupulously as possible presented the origin and course of development of the oil industry in Baku, citing numerous facts, statistical data, economic indicators, we sought not only to show the huge contribution of the Armenians, but also that indisputable fact that allows us to state quite convincingly: the Baku oil industry was founded and developed by Armenians, Russians, Swedes, British, representatives of other nations, but not Azerbaijanis. They had a different national mission: to take possession of what others had created. They successfully completed this mission.