by Vestnik Kavkaza. Gazprom materials were used for the article
Sabit Orujev, a well-known scientist from Baku who was the USSR Minister for the Gas Industry in 1972-1981, would have marked his 100th birthday this year. His ministry increased gas extraction in the USSR to a record of 800 billion cubic meters annually. This record has not been beaten yet and Orujev remains the only man on the planet to have controlled a structure with such gas production. Vestnik Kavkaza publishes a series of recollections of his colleagues about the minister and his reforms in the Soviet gas industry.
The Western Siberian gas industry formed the largest network of fields and a extensive system of pipelines in the 1980s with the help of Orujev, supplying almost all regions of the country with gas and providing export resources. Gas extraction in the Tyumen Region increased from 11.6 billion cubic meters in 1972 to 144 billion cubic meters in 1980.
Alexander Sedykh, head of the Technical Department of the USSR Ministry for Gas Industry, head of the department for science and technical progress and ecology of Gazprom since 1993: “Everyone of us, workers of gas industry, people of the new century, would have been in a different position, would have been thinking otherwise, if it were not for the great influence Orujev had on growth of gas industry of the 1970s-early 1980s. Throughout the eight years Sabit Orujev spent in charge of gas industry of the country, resulted in gas extraction climbing from 220 billion to about 450 billion cubic meters annually, the length of pipeline increased by 53,000km. Current shareholders of Gazprom owe the man in many aspects, as one of the biggest organizers of gas industry in the country. Sabit Orujev, and it is his achievement, could value an employee for his/her work and devotion to the industry. He had faith in employees of his ministry and the workers trusted him.
Throughout his work at the Ministry for Gas Industry, the struggle to fulfill the plan of the field was sacred for him. I still remember his speech on the New Year Eve on December 31, 1972, about his work in gas industry: “Let the final day of this year be the final day of non-fulfillment of the gas extraction plan”. Sabit Orujev fulfilled the task brilliantly. Without optimism in the hard times and without rejoice in the times of success.
On the day following his appointment as the minister, he received a call from Prime Minister Alexey Kosygin and was strictly questioned about lack of gas supplies for one of the most essential enterprises of the country. Orujev replied that he was working as the minister for less than a day and could not comment on the remarks. Kosygin exigently said: “You are responsible for gas supplies of the country from the very first minute of your appointment as the minister”. He reminded all his supervisors about the lesson afterwards. This is why he was learning and getting into work in gas industry using the just-in-time system. Orujev was a harsh and demanding chief... But he was forgiving after castigations he could cause if a task was unaccomplished.
One day, in winter 1975, when the first stage of the Orenburg Gas Chemical Complex was operating, he sent me as the head of a group of specialists to Orenburg to evaluate dependence of power pressure in gas pipelines from extraction facilities to the gas processing plant to increase output and gas extraction. Instructing me, he said that the issue had been discussed with Kosygin as a decision. It turned out that all specialists were opposed to the decision, believing the higher pressure would exceed the limit of steel yield in the pipe and may cause hydrogen cracks and breaks in pipelines. As a result, we would get reduction of gas extraction, instead of growth. When Orujev was informed about it, he started looking daggers and warned that we were not suitable for his team. A few days after, he invited other specialists he knew well at the previous position in the Ministry for Petroleum Industry, expecting them to approve him. Surprisingly, only one of the six specialists invited confirmed readiness to increase pressure and Sabit Orujev had to agree with him. There has been no reproach or disrespect to me from Orujev since then. He was never feeling shaky towards me as a old minister.
One day in August, he returned from vacation and noticed that gas pumping to the UGSF was low for constant gas supply at upcoming autumn-winter season. It was caused, he was explained, by insufficient gas extraction at fields, despite their operating at full output. He took all responsibility for highly technological development of all major gas fields, the Shatlykskoye, Orenburgskoye, Medvezhye, Vuktulskoye to increase extraction to fill the UGSF with gas and prepare for autumn-winter exploitation.
He could not look at the open windows of houses during winter. One cold winter day, Kosygin visited the ministry on a persistent invitation of Orujev. Sabit Orujev asked him to approach the window and showed open windows of a residential building on the opposite side, expecting support in proceeding with the energy-saving policy. If an accident capable of ruining gas supplies occurred, he would fly to fix it immediately. As soon as he received information that a new gas field had been found in Astrakhan and a borehole was providing gas, he flew to Astrakhan and observed it personally.
He formed a group of specialists under my supervision and sent it to Canada to study extraction of high-sulfur gas, similar to the one at the Astrakhan field. Two weeks later, the materials of the group were used to present a project of the first order of the government for development of the Astrakhan field and construction of the Astrakhan Gas Chemical Complex, approved by the USSR Ministerial Council.
One evening, I received a telephone call, Sabit Orujev was saying that I needed to be at the Vnukovo Airport at 7 am to go to Nikolayev to check the factory producing gas turbine engines for ships. He had earlier been informed about high efficiency of using aviation gas turbine engines and marine turbines at compression stations as centrifugal boosters. Passing a note, we expected that he would summon a council to discuss our issue, but the reaction was to see everything we had proposed immediately. We departed to Odessa at 8 am and used a Volga car to reach Nikolayev from Odessa and returned to Moscow the very same day at 10 pm. Consequently, according to a proposal of the Ministry for Gas Industry and the Ministry for Ship-Building, the Krivorozhsky and Ivano-Frankovsky factories were built for production of marine turbines at the first one and centrifugal boosters at the second. Production of gas-pumping machines one their basis was decided for the Sumsky Engineering Plant. The whole scheme was realized in just 2.5 years.
He was constantly on his way to solve problems in construction of the Orenburg Gas Chemical Complex, during drilling of boreholes and construction of machines for gas extraction at the Medvezhye field in the north of the Tyumen Region, the Shatlykskoye field in Turkmenistan. He got Kosygin and other state figures to visit them... Orujev believed that the main capital in any crew was people. He invested in his workers, their training and improvement of skills, creating technical centers in the main gas-extraction regions. In Orenburg, he organized a branch of the Moscow Institute for Petrochemical and Gas Industry named after Gubkin, enforcing the material and technical basis at the Tymen Industry Institute and the Ukhtinsk Industrial Institute.
Sabit Orujev turned development of gas industry into an innovative process aimed at constant modernization of technologies, extraction, equipment for transportation and processing of gas, modernization of drilling equipment.
Sabit Orujev was not only a major state figure with great authority, but also a specialist for development of naval fields of hydrocarbons. It was Orujev who proposed preparations of the ministry to start operating at the shelf in large volumes. He formed the Main Directorate for Exploration and Development of Naval Oil and Gas Fields at the ministry. He did a tremendous job at forming production facilities for exploration of naval fields, launch of oil extraction in the Caspian, Barents and Black Seas. Discovery of the Shtokmanovsky Gas Condensate Field in the Barets Sea in 1988 is a result of the activities he started for development of naval hydrocarbons”.
Sabit Orujev died in spring 1981. He was buried at the Novodevichye Cemetery. The Urengoyskoye Industrial group for gas extraction was named after him, a river bank in Nadym and a street in Baku. After over 30 years since his passing away, many experts admit that his contribution to formation of gas industry is hard to overestimate.
