O.BULANOVA

Engineers are familiar with the technique of building on artificial islands and on piles. But for a whole city to be built on piles, and not just a city, but a special settlement of oil workers who extract oil in the open sea tens of kilometers from the coast, mankind has never known such a thing.

However, such a miracle was built - in 1949, 42 km from Baku in the open sea, and this fact was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. The city was named Oil Rocks. Attention was drawn to this place in the 30s. It was called the Black Stones. It was a small ridge of rocks barely protruding above the surface of the Caspian Sea.

The name of the rocks - Black - arose for a reason. Since ancient times, sailors have noticed that both the rocks and the water around are black from oil oozing from the depths. The young Soviet country needed more and more oil, and a decision was made to start extracting it in this place. But no one has ever produced oil on the high seas, although this question was raised as early as 1896.

Then the idea was rejected, but exactly 50 years later it was remembered and in 1946 a large expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the AzSSR was organized to the Black Stones. It turned out that oil spills there are not accidental - there is a large oil-bearing layer under the seabed. The preparatory work was completed and on November 14, 1948, the first landing of Azerbaijani oilmen landed on Black Stones from the tugboat Pobeda.

It is interesting that Nikolai Baibakov led the landing, who literally a month later became the Minister of the Oil Industry of the USSR.

At first, everything was built on wooden piles driven into the seabed, but this approach significantly slowed down the pace of development of the deposit - people simply had nowhere to turn around, and they had to live somewhere. The decision came semi-fantastic - to create an "island of lost ships", more precisely - specially flooded. The decommissioned ship "Chvanov" was brought from the Baku Bay and sunk it - so that it would not float away. Sleeping and working places were arranged in its premises.

In the summer of 1949, everything was ready for drilling the first well, and on August 24, Mikhail Kaverochkin's team began work. By the holiday of November 7 (in the USSR everything was done for the holidays), the well gave the first oil from a kilometer depth. The volume was amazing: 100 tons were mined per day. In honor of such an important event, the Black Stones were renamed Oil Stones and already under this name entered world history.

The experience with Chvanov turned out to be successful, and before drilling the second well, several more decommissioned vessels were brought to it and turned into an artificial island, conditionally called the Island of Seven Ships. It is from this moment that the “land” history of the Oil Rocks can be counted. The ships served as the foundation and starting point of a bulk dam with a concrete cushion, the creation of which made it possible to build multi-storey buildings on the Oil Rocks. Among these ships was built in 1887 on the initiative and drawings of the Nobels.

The well on the Island of Seven Ships, the second in a row, produced oil in the first half of 1950, and its quantity was slightly inferior to that of the first well. It became clear: the scientists were not mistaken - the bet on the seabed turned out to be correct. A fundamental decision was made - to transfer the Oil Rocks from the exploration stage to the stage of commercial oil production.

Already in February 1951, the first tanker, filled with oil from Neftyanye Kamni, was unloaded at the berth of the oil loading port in Dubendi. In the same year, a large group of conquerors of the Oil Rocks were awarded the USSR State Prize of the first degree.

It was decided to connect two metal artificial islands from the "dead" ships with a flyover, towering above the sea on wooden piles. A little later, half a million cubic meters of rocks and sand were brought to the islands, breakwaters and moorings were built around.

The construction of the overpass began in 1952. By the end of the 50s, Oil Rocks was already a fairly large working settlement with two power plants, a boiler house, a bathhouse, and a first-aid post. 16 two-story wooden barracks were built for the workers. The oldest barrack (“first house”) was commissioned on March 3, 1949.

In order to deliver workers to the shift, to the closest point on the edge of Absheron - the island of Pir-Allahi - they brought railway tracks and launched an electric train from Baku along them (the island itself was connected to the mainland by a dam).

A little later, sea communication was established directly from the Baku Sea Terminal, but still the voyage was extremely tiring (8-9 hours), especially in bad weather (12-13 hours). In a storm, it generally stopped. Therefore, a helicopter was launched on the Oil Rocks.

A new round in the development of the village came in the 60s. In those days, Oil Rocks were rightfully considered the pride of the USSR. The point is not even that this field produced up to 60% of all oil produced in the Soviet seas, but that it was a truly advanced achievement of Soviet science and technology.

By the 70s, the Oil Rocks had acquired a more or less modern look. There was already a bakery, a lemonade shop, two 5-story dormitories and one 9-story residential building. They even laid out a park with trees. In 1981, a 78-kilometer pipeline was built to the Absheron Peninsula to make it easier to deliver oil to the mainland.

For the first time, a full cycle of offshore operations was based on Oil Rocks: from oil and gas exploration to the delivery of finished products, from experiments in the field of marine technology to its mass development and implementation.

Also there, for the first time, the method of drilling from one base of several inclined wells was tested. Subsequently, this method of cluster drilling was widely used in other oil fields of the USSR. And the new trestle method of developing the Oil Rocks field is still considered the first in the world and has no analogues.

During the economic boom in the USSR, many interesting things were created. Truly large-scale and unique projects were implemented. One of these was the city of Oil Rocks, built in the middle of the Caspian Sea and became its formal capital.

In one of his creations, the famous American industrial designer, engineer and futurist Jacque Fresco, founder of the Venus Project, dreamed and thought about building cities on water, for subsequent harmonious coexistence with the environment. While some such ideas remained nothing more than fantasies and dreams, in the USSR they really managed to build a real city on the water. It was created, of course, not for the peaceful coexistence of man with nature, but for the extraction of "black gold", but nevertheless, the consultants of the site believe.

We are talking about the settlement of Oil Rocks, which today is located on the territory of Azerbaijan. The city lies 42 km east of the Absheron Peninsula, in the Caspian Sea. It is located on metal overpasses, which began to appear here since 1949 in connection with the start of oil production in the region. There are drilling rigs surrounded by stone reefs. To date, the settlement consists of more than 200 stationary platforms.

This is really a city on the water, because there is everything necessary for the life of oil workers. The total length of the streets and alleys of the Oil Rocks is 350 km. Today, on average, 2,000 people live and work here. Not so long ago, another drilling platform with 12 wells was opened. Of course, not only geologists and miners of "black gold" work here. Rubbing on the stones and representatives of other professions. Everyone who works here makes more money than their counterparts on the mainland.

Oil stones are considered the capital of the Caspian shelf. The village has several power plants, several dormitories and residential buildings, a bakery, a lemonade shop, a canteen, a hospital, drinking water installations and even a park with trees! There is a lot more, concerning for the most part the transportation and processing of the extracted raw materials. By the way, this city was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest oil platform in the world.

Continuing a topic with an interesting history.

Oil Stones(Azerb. Neft daslar) - the extreme eastern, land point of the Republic of Azerbaijan, an urban-type settlement, in the Caspian Sea, 42 kilometers east of the Absheron Peninsula. Located on steel racks, built in 1949 in connection with the start of oil production from the bottom of the sea around the so-called. Black Stones - a stone ridge (bank), slightly protruding on the surface of the sea. Oil Rocks are surrounded by stone reefs, between which there are banks, underwater and surface rocks. Harbors North and South are located on the western coast of the island and are formed by sunken ships. There are drilling rigs connected by overpasses, on which the settlement of oil field workers is located. This is the easternmost settlement in Azerbaijan. There is no permanent population.

Oil Rocks is considered in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest offshore oil platform.

From the history

Monument to oil workers on Oil Rocks

Oil Rocks is a unique offshore field, which was an outstanding event in the development of the oil business in Azerbaijan. Oil Rocks at that time was the world's largest offshore oil field, both in terms of the thickness of the deposit and the size of the oil produced. Oil Rocks is still a unique city on stilts. For a short time in the open sea, at a distance of up to 100 km from the coast, huge marine crafts were made, equipped with first-class domestic equipment for those times. Oil Rocks are considered the capital of the Caspian shelf.

Large-scale geological studies of the N.K. region were carried out in 1945-1948. The construction of the village began in 1958. 2 power plants with a capacity of 250 kW, a boiler house, an oil gathering station, treatment plants, 16 two-story houses, a hospital, a bathhouse, etc. were built. By 1960, the building of the Baku Oil College was built. In 1966-1975. there was already a bakery, a lemonade shop, 2 5-storey dormitories and one 9-storey residential building. There was a park with trees. In 1976-1986 construction of oil gathering stations, 3 x 5-storey dormitories, a canteen, a hospital, 2 gas-oil compressor stations, a bio-potable water plant, 2 underwater oil pipelines with a diameter of approximately 350 miles was completed. to the Dubendy terminal. On overpasses automatic movement is carried out. Between the Oil Rocks and the port of Baku, regular steamship and helicopter communications are maintained.

Etymology

The name "Oil Rocks" has historical significance - long before the discovery of this field, scientists saw black mountains covered with a film of oil in the Caspian Sea. This zone of the sea area was called "Black Stones". The area of ​​Oil Kameshkov began to be taught already in 1859, which was reflected in a number of works by various scientists: the popular explorer of the Caucasus, Academician G.V. Abikh and famous geologists S.A. Kovalevsky, F.A. Rustambekov, A.K. Alieva, E. N. Alikhanova, B. K. Babazade, V. S. Melik-Pashaeva, F. I. Samedova, Yu. A. Safarova, S. A. Orudzheva, A. B. Suleimanova, Kh. B. Yusifzade, Mr. F. Mir-Babaev and almost all others.

Oil production

Drilling rigs of Oil Pebbles

One of the first initiators of oil extraction from the bottom of the sea was the mining engineer V.K. To his own request, he attached a project unique for such a time, according to which it was supposed to build the construction of a special waterproof platform at a height of 12 feet (up to 4 meters) above sea level with the descent of the produced oil into barges.

Postage stamp of the USSR in 1971, dedicated to the Oil Rocks

In the case of a fountain, a special barge with a carrying capacity of up to 200 thousand tons of oil was provided, which would ensure the safe export of oil to the shore. The Caucasian Mining Department rejected his request, however, recognizing that the bottom of the Caspian Sea near Absheron is oil-bearing, and it would be desirable to check both the oil-bearing capacity of the seabed and experimentally identify the technical possibility of oil production and the economic conditions for such a method of exploitation.

The first practical work on the study of the geological structures of the NK water area was carried out in 1946 by the oil expedition of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, as a result of which very huge oil reserves were discovered.

A powerful impetus to the exploration of oil and gas fields in various parts of the Caspian Sea was the receipt of offshore oil near Ilyicha Bay (now Bayil estuaries) from the world's first well No. 71, built in 1924 on piles made of wood. Later, in the USSR in 1932-1933, 2 more foundations were built, when it already became clear that the oil-bearing contour went beyond the Bibi-Heybat Bay, which was filled up in 1932. The first foundation, built at a distance of 270 m from the eastern enclosure of the bay backfill at a sea depth of up to 6 m, had an area of ​​948 m and a length of 55 m.

The first landing of oilmen, who landed on Oil Rocks on November 14, 1948, was part of the commanding landing of Nikolai Baibakov, the creator of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200boffshore oil deposits, the head of the Aznefterazvedka association, manufactured in 1947, Sabit Orujev, geologist Agakurban Aliyev and a drilling specialist Yusif Safarov. The captain of the sea tug Pobeda, on which the landing force sailed, was one of the experienced post-war Caspian captains, Azhdar Sadikhov. In addition to that, there were professional master builders, rig builders, drilling engineers, who carried out the construction of the first production facilities on piles.

Industrial development of oil pebbles

Preparatory work for drilling the first exploratory well at Neftyanye Kamenya began in June 1949. To create a drilling foothold, the Chvanov ship, which had served its personal time, was towed to the Oil Kameshki zone and flooded at this point. On August 24, 1949, the team of the future Hero of Socialist Labor Misha Kaverochkin started drilling the first well, which produced long-awaited oil on November 7 of the same year. It was a world triumph: the well had a depth of about 1000 m, and its daily flow rate was 100 tons of flowing oil. In honor of this impact, it was decided to rename the "Black Stones" to "Oil Rocks".

Later, to build a bridgehead for drilling the 2nd well, 7 more old, literally unseaworthy ships were brought there and half flooded. This is how the artificial “Island of 7 Ships” was born, where oil was already being produced six months later.

The 2nd well, drilled by the team of another Hero of Socialist Labor Kurban Abbasov, with approximately the same flow rate as the 1st, was put into operation in the first half of 1950.

In 1951, the industrial development of Oil Kameshkov began. In 1952, for the first time in world practice, the construction of a flyover began, which was supposed to connect artificial steel islands. Oil production is carried out from more than 20 horizons, which is a unique phenomenon. Since 1949, 1940 wells have been drilled at the field, producing 60% of all offshore oil in the USSR. At the end of the 90s. the well stock amounted to 472, of which 421 were active. The average daily production level is 1800-2000 tons of oil, 50% of the wells are flooded. The remaining recoverable oil reserves in the field are 21 million tons. The field is connected to the mainland by an underwater oil pipeline 78 km long, approximately 350 miles in diameter. 2000 people worked here.

Oil transportation

Docks on Oil Rocks

In February 1951, the first tanker with oil from the Neftyanye Kameshkov field stood up for unloading at the berth of the Dubendi oil loading port. The underwater oil pipeline from Neftyanye Kameshkov, through which oil is currently delivered to the shore, was built only in 1981.

New story

Currently, Oil Rocks are more than 200 stationary platforms, and the length of the streets and lanes of this city in the sea reaches up to 350 km. Over the past years, more than 160 million tons of oil and 13 billion m3 of associated petroleum gas have been produced at this field. More than 380 production wells operate here, each of which produces an average of up to 5 tons of oil per day.

Directly on Oil Rocks, for the first time, an absolute cycle of marine operations was founded: from oil and gas exploration to the delivery of finished products, from experiments in the field of marine technology to its mass development and implementation. In the process of conducting exploration and exploitation work on the Oil Rocks, a whole school of training scientific personnel was formed. In practice, the latest ideas and developments of scientists were implemented, and oil workers acquired professional experience and skills in the most complex marine aspects. Oil specialists working for oil companies were later sent to work at the Kazakhneft, Turkmenneft, Dagneft, Tatneft, Bashneft, etc. fields.

At Oil Rocks, for the first time in the USSR, the method of drilling from the 1st base of several directional wells was tested. In the future, this method of cluster drilling was widely used in other oil fields of the USSR. And the new trestle method of developing the Oil Rocks field is still considered the first in the world and has no analogues.

Khrushchev and Oil Rocks

5-9 storey houses for shift workers on Oil Rocks

In 1960, the 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, N. S. Khrushchev, visited Neftyanye Rocks and promptly solved two serious problems of the field:

• 1) gave an order to deliver watches from the shore to the field by helicopters; at that time it was MI-4, and later MI-8 (before that, the inhabitants of our planet, products, all kinds of products were delivered from the coast only by sea; and
• 2) ordered to build 5-9 storey houses on bulk foundations (before his visit, 1-2 storey houses on piles were built there). Thus, an important problem of housing for shift workers was resolved: during the first time of work on the Oil Rocks, the oil workers lived in the cabins of old ships flooded near the islands.

New story

In November 2007, a new platform No. 2387 was put into operation at Neftyanye Kamni, intended for drilling 12 wells. The height of the two-block platform reaches 45 m, weight - 542 tons. The platform is installed at a sea depth of 24.5 m. The service life of the blocks assembled at the Baku Deep Water Jackets Plant is provided for 50 years. It is planned to drill 12 newest wells from this platform at an average depth of 1800 m.

Oil Rocks (Azerb. Neft daşları) is an urban-type settlement in Azerbaijan, in the Caspian Sea, 42 kilometers east of the Absheron Peninsula. It is located on metal racks built in 1949 in connection with the start of oil production from the bottom of the sea around the so-called. Black Stones - a stone ridge (bank), barely protruding on the surface of the sea. Oil Rocks are surrounded by stone reefs, between which there are banks, underwater and surface rocks.

Harbors North and South are located on the western coast of the island and are formed by sunken ships. There are drilling rigs connected by overpasses, on which the settlement of oil field workers is located. This is the easternmost settlement in Azerbaijan. There is no permanent population.

In a short time in the open sea, at a distance of up to 100 kilometers from the coast, large marine fisheries were created, equipped with first-class domestic equipment for those times. Oil Rocks are considered the capital of the Caspian shelf.

There was a park with trees. In 1976-1986 the construction of oil gathering points, three 5-storey dormitories, a canteen, a hospital, 2 oil-gas compressor stations, a biological plant for drinking water, 2 underwater oil pipelines with a diameter of 350 mm to the Dubendy terminal was completed. The overpasses carry traffic. Between Oil Rocks and the port of Baku, regular steamship and helicopter communications are maintained.

Oil Rocks, or, as the oilmen themselves call them, "Pebbles" are not just kilometers of overpasses in the open sea and a sharp rise in the level of oil production. For some of them, the "Black Rocks" became the last refuge - they died trying to conquer the sea. But no matter how pathetic it may sound, their cause lives on to this day.

The name "Oil Rocks" has historical significance - long before the discovery of this field, scientists noticed black rocks covered with a film of oil in the Caspian Sea. This zone of the sea area was called "Black Stones".

The first foundation, built at a distance of 270 m from the eastern enclosure of the bay backfill at a sea depth of up to 6 m, had an area of ​​948 m² and a length of 55 m.

Later, to build a bridgehead for drilling the second well, 7 more old, almost unseaworthy ships were brought there and half-flooded. This is how the artificial "Island of Seven Ships" was born, where oil was already being produced six months later.

The field is connected to the mainland by an underwater oil pipeline 78 km long and 350 mm in diameter. In the late 90s. 2000 people worked here.

The underwater oil pipeline from Neftyanye Kamni, which currently brings oil to the shore, was built only in 1981.

Currently, the Oil Rocks are more than 200 stationary platforms, and the length of the streets and lanes of this city in the sea reaches up to 350 kilometers.

It was on the Oil Rocks that the full cycle of offshore operations was first based: from oil and gas exploration to the delivery of finished products, from experiments in the field of marine technology to its mass development and implementation.

In November 2009, Oil Rocks celebrated their 60th anniversary.

Although "Kamushki" is called a city, there is no habitual urban noise inherent in megacities here. .

One of the most incredible settlements in the world is located far in the Caspian Sea, a hundred kilometers from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. It is a fully functional city where 3,000 people live on a multitude of oil platforms and artificial islands, connected by 300 kilometers of overpasses. We are talking about a city called Oil Rocks, and it is entirely located in the largest lake in the world, at an incredible distance of 55 kilometers from the coast.

Azerbaijan has been famous for its rich oil resources since ancient times. Evidence of oil drilling and actual oil trading has been found here as far back as the 3rd and 4th centuries. Historical accounts of the seepage of oil and natural gas in this region can be found in old Arabic and Persian manuscripts, as well as in the writings of famous travelers such as Marco Polo. The Persians called this area the "Land of Fire".

Modern oil production began in 1870 after Russia conquered the area. By the start of World War I, Azerbaijan's oil wells were already supplying 175 million barrels of crude oil per year, or 75 percent of the country's total oil production. After the war and while searching for oil in the Caspian Sea, Soviet engineers found high-quality oil 1,100 meters below the surface of the seabed. Shortly thereafter, the world's first offshore oil platform was built on this site and the city of Oil Rocks was founded.

The original basis of the Oil Rocks was seven shipwrecks, including the world's first oil tanker. In a few decades, their number has grown to 2,000 drilling platforms, stretching for 30 kilometers. The platforms were interconnected by a network of bridges with a total length of 300 kilometers. On these platforms, workers built eight-story apartment buildings, a beverage factory, a football field, a library, a bakery, a laundry, a 300-seat cinema, a bathhouse, a kitchen garden, and even a tree-lined park for which land was brought from the mainland. During its heyday, about 5,000 workers lived here.

The decline of the Oil Rocks began with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the discovery of oil deposits throughout the country. The workforce at this site has been reduced and many platforms have been abandoned. The desolation and lack of maintenance has led to the fact that many of them have collapsed into the sea. Others are in the process of destruction. Of more than 300 kilometers of roads, only 45 kilometers can be used at the moment, and even they are gradually being destroyed. However, for the government, this place is still a matter of pride and a closely guarded secret, which it was in Soviet times. It is still very difficult for foreigners to get there. This place can't even be enlarged on Google Maps.