ion cubic metres of gas have been extracted. At present the Oil Rocks is the furthest eastern settlement in the country. More than 2000 people are working here at present.
In 1964-1968 the level of oil extraction rose to the stable level and comprised about 21 million tons per year. From 1969 to 1985 the quantity of the extracted oil began to decrease from year to year, as a result within five years the oil extraction remained on the point of 13 million tons per year. The reasons for the fall of the level of the oil extraction in the 60s of the XX century were the exhaustion of the on-shore oil fields, and the high cost price of oil extracted in the sea, as well as the discovery of big deposits of oil in the Western Siberia, Kazakhistan and other regions of the Soviet Union. All these factors led to the decrease of the share of Azerbaijan in the overall oil extraction in the USSR (in 1950 – 39.1%, by 1960 – 12%, in 1970-1980 correspondingly from 5.7% to 2.4%). As a result of it, Moscow ceased paying a due attention to the oil industry of Azerbaijan.
However, despite all the above-mentioned, within this period, several big off-shore oil and gas fields on the Caspian shelf were put into operation, some oil-refineries and machine-building factories were constructed. In 1971 the extraction of the first billion tons of oil since the beginning of the industrial development in Azerbaijan was ceremoniously celebrated in the Republic. In 1981 the record quantity of gas was extracted – 15 billion cubic metres.
The next fall in the oil extraction began in 1990. Its main reasons were the overall fall of the economy of the USSR in the 80s and violation of the economic relations among the subjects of the former Soviet Union after gaining independence.