Oil era takes on new dimensions in Baku

The oil and gas industry began its journey in 1844 with the drilling of the first well on the Absheron Peninsula - Bibi-Heybat, 11 years before entrepreneur Mirzoev set up the first drilling rig in Pennsylvania (USA), followed by a se­cond one the next year.

Civilization has developed extraction methods and various technologies over the nearly two centuries, and the pla­net’s population has more than doubled. However, the biosphere, nature, and various biological species have not been able to adapt to the accelerated pace of human consumption in their new environment. The climate is reac­ting to pollution from the combustion of coal, oil and gas, nuclear tests, and various man-made inorganic materials. Therefore, the very future of humans as a bio-subspecies depends on how well they manage to combine further technological progress with the preservation of natural, biological, and water resources, thereby ensuring a comfor­table habitat for themselves. It is no coincidence that today, when Azerbaijan has implemented more than 96% of its flagship oil and gas project Azeri, Chirag, Gunashli in the Caspian Sea, it was chosen as the venue for the UN Framework Conference on Climate, which will be held on November 11-19 in Baku. The conference will likely mark the beginning of a completely new industry based on reduced or complete absence of fossil fuel consumption in the co­ming years.

After the annexation of the Baku Kha­nate to Russia in 1806, the government formed a revenue item from the khan’s oil wells and began leasing them out. The methods of extracting and utilizing oil were primitive, and the population mainly extracted oil from natural wells.

For the first time among Europeans, Eichwald gave the most complete des­cription of oil production in Baku in his work «Reise auf dem Caspischen Meereund Caucasus» in 1825, where he vividly depicted the eternal fires and the cult of fire worshippers from India. Starting from the 1740s, percussion-rod well drilling began, and production was carried out using bailers. 1877 should be considered the moment when the Baku oil industry got on a solid footing. In 1879, there were 126 separate firms and entrepreneurs producing oil on an area of 411 acres.

From the beginning of the 20th century, the Absheron Peninsula was already producing 10 million tons of oil per year, which accounted for half of the world’s oil production. By this time, the oil industry was gripped by a dep­ression that peaked during the revolutionary period, although already in 1940, the republic provided 71.5% of oil in the USSR. The crisis continued until the economic recovery after World War II, when after receiving the first offshore oil in 1949, the offshore oil industry got its first impetus for development.