Nobel Brothers in Azerbaijan state archives

Nobel Brothers Oil Production Partnership, was founded in 1875. A year later, Robert Nobel bought a small kerosene plant in Baku’s Black City area from Tiflis Society. It was where the company grew further.

In 1876, Nobel Brothers was formally established as an oil production and processing company. The first oil rig was drilled in Sabunchu the same year. Following the expansion of production, the company was transformed into a joint-stock company, Nobel Brothers Oil Production Partnership, in 1879 with 3 million rubles of assets.

The Board of the Partnership was based in St Petersburg. It had the following departments:

1. Department for kerosene trade in Russia 

2. Foreign department

3. Department for transportation of petroleum products via Volga and Kama

4. Department of oil residues and lubricants 

The Partnership conducted oil production activities mainly in Baku area. Almost all of their production units were based in Baku’s Balakhani, Sabunchu, Ramani and Bibi-Heybat areas, as well as along the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea (Fr. Cheleken) and Kaitag-Tabasaransky district of Dagestan.

The partnership owned seven oil processing and mechanical plants in Black City. These included two chemical plants, one for production of white cement and sulfuric acid copper, the other produced caustic soda, soap and surrogate naphthenic acids. 

The Partnership also owned a ship repair enterprise in Baku that repaired not only ships but also as items of equipment for industries and factories and manufacturing boilers.

The company built its first gasoline plant in Baku in 1890-1891. Oil fields were connected with refineries by five pipelines. The Partnership also owned a lot of means of transportation, wagons, tanks, a barge, etc. It had more than 200 stores in various cities of Russia.

The fund’s documents are very diverse. For instance, we learn from a document dated 1909 that it celebrated the 50th birthday of the chairman, E.L.Nobel.

Azerbaijan’s state archives contain a lot of documents on the charitable activities of the Nobel Brothers Partnership. These include petitions by workers and employees of the association for funds to pay for education of their children; requests by employees for pay rises, rewards for long working years, compensation for those affected by accidents. 

The archives also include diaries of outpatient visits to Black City medical station by employees of the Partnership and members of their families, hospital books of those injured in accidents, documents on two-week sick leaves given to workers being treated in hospitals.

We know from the documents that the Partnership funded construction of a school on a plot of land it owned near Villa Petrolea. Nobel Brothers also donated money for technical education of its workers at Chernogorodskiy (Black City) school.

As is known from correspondence with the director of Baku secondary school, there were five scholarships funded by E.Nobel at the school.

The company also had offices and warehouses abroad - in the UK, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Iran and Turkey. The Baku department served as the center of all trade and production operations of Nobel Brothers. The department consisted of a secretariat, as well as technical, commercial, land, statistics, accounting and other divisions.

There were also the Balakhany and Black City offices reporting to the Baku department of the Partnership.

The archives also contain reports and maps of geological exploration activities for oil and ore conducted in the North Caucasus, Trans-Caucasia and the Absheron Peninsula.

The partnership attended international exhibitions in Paris, Glazko and Turin and an international oil conference. 

There is also correspondence with British maritime administration of the sale and transport of petroleum products and payment for sale of oil supplies, as well as oil supplies to the Denikin army.

The Baku department of Nobel Brothers was headed by a manager appointed by the Board of the Partnership. It is interesting to note that the majority of employees of the department were foreigners.

All companies of the Partnership were nationalized by a decree of the Bolshevik Bakinskiy Sovet government on June 2, 1918.

Baku was liberated from the Bolshevik forces several months later. Yet Nobel Brothers Oil Production Partnership ceased to exist after Soviet Russia recaptured Baku in April 1920. The Bolsheviks issued a decree on May 24 1920 on the nationalization of the oil industry.

By L. Axundova

State Archives of Azerbaijan

Bakudaily.az