Since discovering of oil deposits Baku became a special place where various economic and political interests of international coalitions, industrial clans and leaders of countries concentrated and clashed. VK begins publication of chapters of the book by Ismail Agakishiyev “History of Baku oil industry and the second oil boom (second half of the XIXth – the early XXIst century).” The book presents a historic analysis of the appearance and modern conditions of the Azerbaijani oil industry.
The Azerbaijani oil and gas complex has great resource potential, huge accumulated capital and it plays a special role in economy and policy of the country. In the current situation it is an important strategic factor and one of the main resources of the GDP growth. This complex provides preservation and improvement of economic and political ties of Azerbaijan with the former Soviet countries, East and West Europe, the USA, Japan, Iran, Turkey, and other states.
The book is devoted to the acute and interesting theme of history of the Baku oil industry and the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Even though the theme was considered by scientists and politicians, it has still been studied insufficiently. The modern history of the oil industry of Azerbaijan (1990-2000) hasn’t been an object of a serious historic analysis based on historic sources. It gains even greater relevance due to drastic embarrassment of economic and political issues, which resulted from short-sighted activities of political scientists and experts in order to please some top officials, politicians and oil companies. The objective of the work is analysis of political and economic activity of Azerbaijan and other states, major oil companies and structures interested in exploration of oil deposits and prospect structures in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea from the second half of the XIXth c. to the early XXIst c.
The author of the book is a native Baku resident, a high qualified specialist in the sphere of oil economy. The sources for the work were regulatory legal acts of the Azerbaijani Republic, periodicals of Azerbaijan, the USA, Russia, Turkey and Iran, statistics volumes and press releases of oil companies. The author had no opportunity to work with the current archives of these companies. But rigorous studying of mentioned sources enabled him to reconstruct day by day a complete picture of the developments, understand unknown economic history’s affairs connected with oil specificity. Detailed studying of interviews and statements by heads of oil companies and leaders of countries enabled reconstruction of information stored as a top secret in archives and safe boxes of oil companies.
Key aspects of the work:
- history of the first and the second Baku booms, similarity and difference;
- staged historic analysis of Baku oil industry in the Russian Empire, the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic and the USSR;
- myths and reality in the comparative analysis of discussed and agreed conditions with foreign oil companies in the oil contract with the authorities of Azerbaijan in 1990-1994;
- difference between economic conditions of functioning national and foreign companies in Azerbaijan, their successes and problems;
- problems of understanding exploration of the Caspian oil by the authorities of various countries if the region and their settlement in dynamic of the historic development.
Key directions of the work:
- forming of the foreign consortium of AMOK and joint with SOCAR practical implementation of conditions of the Contract of the Century; problems appeared during working and their settlement;
- economic cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan; activity of first and the major Russian company LUKOIL in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, its role in the cultural and economic life of the republic; policy of LUKOIL in the Caspian Sea.
The methodological basement of the work is principles of historicism and scientific objectiveness. It means the work was written considering historic retrospective and critical analysis of all available sources.
History of oil industry has always been interesting to Russian and Soviet scientists. Based on literature analysis the major part of the second chapter of the book, which is devoted to history of Baku oil industry before dissolution of the USSR, was written. Let’s pay attention to books devoted to oil history in the post-Soviet period. We should mention the work developed by a big scientific team headed by V. Alekperov and supported by LUKOIL. As many historians of the middle and young generations moved to political science, the work of Alekperov’s team seems very modern and acute. Professional historians of this team admire with their compatriots who continue titanic work of the scientists started in the second half of the XIXth century; among them were D. Mendeleyev, S. Gulishambarov and others. A. Igolkin, A. Matveichuk and other scientists organized the museum of LUKOIL where archive documents on history of oil industry are presented.
To be continued
Ismail Agakishiyev “History of Baku oil industry and the second oil boom”
