After the discovery of the oil fields, Baku became a special place, where various economic and political interests of international coalitions, industrial clans and leaders were concentrated and clashed. VK begins publishing chapters from the book by Ismail Agakishiev "History of the Baku Oil Industry and the Second Oil Boom (second half of the 19th century - beginning of the 20thcentury.)". The book presents a historical analysis of the emergence and current state of the Azerbaijani oil industry.
Thus, by the end of the XIX century, the development of the Baku oil industry underwent major quantitative and qualitative changes. In1900-1901 Russia became the first in the world in terms of oil production, ahead of the U.S. It should be borne in mind that this time the major oil producers in the world were Russia, United States and Romania. A slight amount of oil was extracted also in the Dutch India, Japan, Germany and Poland. The leadership of Russian, mainly Baku, oil, was unmistakable. Oil export prompted high revenues of Baku oil industrialists. 16% of oil and oil products, produced in Russia, was exported. 59% of Russian oil exports went to Europe, most of all in England. Oil had the third place in Russian export revenues, after rain and wood. A point of view of the Baku oil industrialists as defined, who, in a letter to the Head of the civil part of the Caucasus, Prince A. M. Dondukov-Korsakov, on October 31, 1886, wrote: The Baku oil industry reached such level of development that it could provide lighting and lubricants without difficulty not only the whole of Russia, but also and most of Europe in the need amount".
Such fairly rapid development of the Baku oil industry, in the beginning of the twentieth century was replaced by a rather significant slowing of its growth. As is rightly noted by the researchers, "in general ... the years preceding the 1917 Revolution, can be characterized as the recession time of the oil industry in Russia." After 1901 there was fairly rapid decline in oil production. The first year of the twentieth century, as the researcher of oil industry of Azerbaijan, E.B. Muradalieva, notes, was the last year when the Baku oil industry kept a first place in the world oil production. If in 1901, in Baku region, 12.2 million tons was produced, in 1902 - only 10.6 million tons. In subsequent years, oil production continued to decline. And this happened whereas the world oil field expanded all the time. Already in 1901 the ranks of oil producing countries were complemented by Mexico, in 1911 - by Iran. Oil production rose in Venezuela, Romania, British and Dutch Indias, Colombia, Peru, Trinidad and Argentina. Some amounts of oil was extracted in Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, Japan and some countries in Central Europe. Meanwhile, production of oil in the Baku region dropped to 6.7 million tons in 1905.
In the years following the first Russian revolution, it increased slightly, but the previous level and the rate of growth was not reached. In this connection, the role of the Baku oil region in the world oil production also decreased/ From 1904 to 1913, Russia's share in world oil production decreased from 31 to 9%. In 1910 about 25% of workers employed in oil production, were fired. (1) If in 1901 the export of Russian kerosene wasl 1041.2 thousand tons, in 1908 – only 455.3 thousand tons. In 1909 Russian exports of lubricating oil declined by more than three times as compared to 1901. If we consider that in 1913 production in the Baku region accounted for 82.6% of production in the country, it becomes apparent that the decline in exports was mainly because of the decrease of export from the Apsheron Peninsula. In this time the basic consumer of oil were Russian regions, where the development of new capitalist relations went on in high tempos. In 1913 all-Russian balance of fuel oil and petroleum products were: in industry - 50%, in the railways - 29%, in water transport - 18.3% and in electric stations - 60%.
With the opening of the internal combustion engine and Diesel engine a new era of light oil began. The wide use of these engines in oil tankers and warships dramatically increased the demand for fuel oil.
Profitability of gasoline and diesel fuel increased markedly. Thus, the demand of oil by the country's domestic market, first of all industry, was all the while increasing. And this was undoubtedly a progressive trend, a natural consequence of industrial development in the country. However, the decrease in Russia's role in the global oil industry clearly indicated the serious problems in the political, social and economic development of the country. In 1965, A. A. Fursenko, referring to this problem, noted: "The Revolution and the Russian-Japanese war definitely furthered decline in the oil business. But the root cause of the decline is much deeper - inn the very structure of the oil economy, the actions of monopolies, which, combined with the political regime of autocracy acquired in Russia especially parasitic, predatory character.
