on of the oil industry started. But as a result of the weakened industrial potential of Azerbaijan the level of oil extraction fell, reaching 11.5 million tons in 1945. Only from 1947 the oil extraction began to grow again.
At the end of the 1940s the construction of the “Oil Rocks” (“Neft Dashlari”) started. On November 14, 1948 the first troop of oil workers headed by Nikolay Baybakov landed in the open sea on a group of rocks 42 km to the south-east of the Apsheron Peninsular called “Gara Dashlar” (“Black Rocks”). The staff of the troop included Sabit Orujov and geologist Agagurban Aliyev, the author of the idea that there is oil in the sea. All of them later became living legends. After finishing the construction of a small house on piles and an electric power station, M.Kaverochkin’s brigade started drilling the first well on June 24, 1949. On November 7, 1949 this well at a depth of 1100 m gushed out oil with a daily output of 100 tons. In honour of this event it was decided to rename “Black Rocks” as “Oil Rocks”. And on February 18, 1951 the first tanker with oil was ceremoniously sent to the shore. It was decided to create an artificial island of 7 thousand hectares around the Oil Rocks. Half a million cubic metres of rocky blocks and sand were brought from the islands of Zhiloy and Urunos. Breakwaters, moorings and shelters for vessels were built around. And in 1952 for the first time in the world practice there started the construction of a pier which connected the artificial islands. There were times when the length of the pier connecting the numerous areas reached 300 km. The grand construction started on the Oil Rocks in 1958. In the open sea at 110 km distance from Baku electric power stations, five- and even nine-storey buildings of hostels, hospitals, Palaces of Culture, bakery factories, lemonade workshop were constructed (its product was even “exported” to the shore), a park with trees was laid too. Since 1949 there have been drilled 1940 wells here, more than 160 million tons of oil and 12 billion 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.