On the first Sunday of September every year, Russia celebrates Oil and Gas Industry Workers Day, often referred to simply as Oilman Day. Although the first mention of the sources of "black gold" in the country can be found in the 10th century treatise of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Bagrjanorodny "On State Management", specialists of the key industry for the national economy got their professional holiday only in 1965 after miners, railwaymen, builders and metallurgists. What happened in the middle of the XX century?
The beginning of industrial oil production is connected with the development of the Caucasian subsoil. In the mid-19th century, an oil fever broke out in the Grozny and Baku regions, which attracted a large number of investors, including the famous Nobel and Rothschild families. The first exploratory well was drilled here industrially, and the first refinery and oil pipeline were built.
From 1861 to 1913 - from the abolition of serfdom to the outbreak of World War II - oil production in Russia increased 1,469 times. Thus, in 1901, the maximum pre-revolutionary oil production was achieved in the Baku area - 11 million tons, thanks to which Russia began to produce 50% of the world's indicators.
Given the growing demands of the developing industry and the gradual depletion of existing fields, geologists were faced with the task of finding new deposits. In the first half of the XX century they were found in other parts of the country: between the Volga and the Urals, in the Kuibyshev region, Kazakhstan and Bashkiria. But the real breakthrough was Western Siberia, although on a composite geological map of 1915 its expanses represented only white spots.
Today many people know such surnames as Ervier, Salmanov or Muravlenko, in memory of whom cities, streets, motor ships and airports are named.
However, they were closely involved in the region between the Ural Mountains and the bed of the Yenisei, when its promising in terms of oil and gas content had already been confirmed by others. Only a few can name the real pioneers, whose knowledge and exploration work led to Big Oil. One of the organizers of the search and discovery of the first deposits was the geologist Sergei Chernov.
In 1949, he came with his family to Siberia for the beginning of the search for hydrocarbons as one of the first specialists. When West Siberian oil prospecting expedition was organized by order of Ministry of geology of the USSR, the head of GLAVK, put Chernov on one of the most "difficult" and responsible positions - chief geologist and deputy head of the expedition. It was necessary to organize geophysical researches in the whole territory of the province and to determine the places of drilling of reference wells. Confirmation or refutation of optimistic forecasts made by such scientists as Ivan Gubkin and Dmitry Nalivkin depended on the success of the enterprise.
He was a mature and knowledgeable oil prospector with a solid baggage of knowledge after graduating from the Leningrad Mining Institute, undergoing practical training, including in the Ishimbayneft trust, and experience in conducting exploration work in various regions of the country. A senior geologist in the fields of Sakhalin, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kemerovo region within the Ermakov party, he worked practically everywhere where petroleum was extracted at that time. The fact that "Ukrneftepromrazvedka" trust, where he worked in the 40's, sent him bonus payments to Novosibirsk as he explored and further explored the fields discovered by him up to the 70's, was indicative of Chernoff's professional level.
Sergei Ivanovich was widely known as a highly skilled practitioner, so he preferred office work to business trips to the sites where the parties worked directly. From 1950 to 1954, he was head of the Field Geological Prospecting Party of Zapsibneftegeologia Trust.
As oil geologists say, the most important thing for their profession is to always be determined to win. Anyone who gets knocked off balance the first time they encounter problems has to quit. There is nothing for him to do in the industry. You can doubt your previous conclusions, rethink what seemed indisputable, even make mistakes, but always believe in ultimate success. Even when Lavrenty Beria, who supervised the country's energy sector, not getting fast and loud results in Siberia, decided to eliminate oil prospecting and exploration...
All equipment was transported to the European part of the country, the Khanty-Mansiysk and Turukhan expeditions ceased to exist, undershot wells were closed. But the mining engineers fought on. Just a month after Beria's decision the Berezovskaya drilling party, which was to be disbanded after testing the well, reported a 50 meter high gas fountain. This discovery saved exploration work in West Siberian province and contributed to a sharp increase in its volume.
From 1954 and 1961 Chernov worked as a chief geologist of Novosibirsk geological prospecting expedition, where he headed the geological service of the expedition with core drilling and geological interpretation of the results obtained, construction of structural maps for Chekan and Lyulinvor formations, with subsequent forecasting for inherited anticlinal uplifts, possible oil and gas traps in more buried horizons. He organized laboratories for the study of core material, including chemical, lithological and others, where basic material of promising sediments of Western Siberia was accumulated and studied.
The result of those first works and scientific research was the long-awaited discovery of deposits in Western Siberia. Oil was not discovered by geologists and drillers for a long time, until finally, in 1960, on the banks of the Konda River in Khanty-Mansiysky Okrug, a real fountain struck - almost 400 tons per day. Soon unique fields, such as Samotlor and Urengoy, were discovered. They were lurking in the subsoil, waiting to ensure the country's economic development and energy security not only in the XX, but also in the XXI century.
In the region the active development of hydrocarbon deposits began, construction of several major oil and gas production and transportation facilities was launched, thousands of workers, geologists and engineers from different parts of the Union began arriving. On August 28, 1965 according to Anastas Mikoyan's decree Oilman's Day appeared in the calendar of professional holidays. They say this decision of the head of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was influenced by a lecture given by Nikolai Baibakov, who was in charge of organizing oil production in the USSR at the time. At the Moscow Polytechnic Museum he spoke about the development of Tyumen reserves.
"Why is there still no professional holiday for oil industry workers in our country?" - asked a question from the audience.
The leading petroleum engineer replied that the demonstrated increase in production would soon force the top brass of the USSR to approve an all-Union holiday. That happened in the very near future. Today it is still celebrated, not only in our country, but also in Belarus, Armenia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova.
The oil and gas industry currently employs over 300 companies in 34 regions of Russia. More than 2 million people work at the specialized enterprises.
Sergey Chernov's fruitful work was appreciated by the government: he received the Medal for Labor Valor and the Order of the Labor Red Banner. By the way, Sergey Ivanovich was not the only member of his family to become famous in the oil and gas industry. His younger brother, Vasily Ivanovich, followed in his footsteps and became the discoverer of one of the largest fields in Uzbekistan, the Gazlinskoye field, and a Lenin Prize laureate.