In the middle of the Caspian Sea, an island, made by the hand of man – incredible steel towers, rusty pipes, wooden bridges, mammoth buildings from the Soviet era – that does not appear on maps: welcome to Neft Dashlari.
Its history dates back to the 40s of the 20th century, when Joseph Stalin ordered the construction of this platform after discovering that there was oil in the area under the seabed of the Caspian Sea.
It is located about 55 kilometers from Baku, on the coast of Azerbaijan, and its name in Russian means “Oil Rocks” or, as it is known in English, “Oil Rocks”, because this city is, in turn, the oil platform oldest marina in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
It is precisely in Baku where the 29th United Nations Conference on Climate Change in 2024, COP29, will take place next week.
It was in 1920 when the Red Army entered Azerbaijan and took it as part of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). It belonged to the Soviet Bloc until October 1991, shortly before its official dissolution.
During World War II it was crucial for its energy strategy since much of the oil used on the Eastern Front came from Baku.
Neft Dashlari was initially created as part of a five-year plan directed by Stalin, that is, the 5-year projects for the development of its economy, especially its industry, and which were the flagship of the Soviet bureaucracy, although many were not completed and others were abandoned or failed.
Its construction began after a first successful oil exploration, on November 7, 1949. The area turned out to have one of the largest oil reserves in Central Asia.
“On November 7, the well produced a gush of oil (100 tons per day), marking the world’s first offshore oil production. Azerbaijan is the first to exploit oil fields in the open part of the Caspian Sea,” states the page of SOCAR, the state oil company of Azerbaijan.
What was first a small platform for extraction with a minimal house for the workers to stay there, led to a large construction starting in 1951. An “architectural and technical miracle,” according to what filmmaker Marc Wolfensberger said of the place when he was able to. see it in the late 90s.
To speed up the works on the marine platform, something unique was done: Decommissioned ships were sunk to use the frames as foundations and, on them, the pillars of the buildings were mounted.
One of these ships was the tanker Zoroaster, the first ever made in the world. Its creator, Ludvig Nobel—brother of Albert Nobel—manufactured it as a solution to oil transportation at the end of the 19th century.
“In 1951, to protect the island from wind and waves, six additional ships of the Khazartanker and Khazardonanma companies were dismantled and brought here half-sunk, and an artificial bay was created around the island. The ship’s cabins and holds were used as a mess hall, medical station, sleeping quarters, and other uses for members of the drilling crew. That’s where the original name of this place comes from, “Island of the Seven Boats,” the SOCAR page states.
Later, this artificial island became famous with the name it has today.
A place to live
Over the years, Neft Dashlari grew as a gigantic octopus-shaped city on the sea.
Building blocks for workers, a bakery, shops, medical centers, a soccer field, a helipad and even a theater.
Today, Mirvari Gahramanli, director of the Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organization, which focuses on human rights in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sector, tells BBC Mundo, Neft Dashlari is built. several meters above the sea surface on pillars on metal posts fixed to the seabed.
And, according to what he says, there are still these residential buildings, a medical and health department and shops. In addition, “trees have been planted on the steel docks and a park has been built.”
The first site of its kind
“The Neft Dashlari field is considered the first to be exploited in the open sea in the world. And this place, because it is unique, is sometimes called the eighth wonder of the world, the island of the seven ships, the island of wonders,” says Gahramanli.
He Oil Rocks field is about 12 km long and 6 km wide and, according to Gahramanli data, some 2,000 wells and almost 200 kilometers of overpasses have been dug in the area.
In its beginnings, the island had about 5,000 workers. Today, according to Gahramanli data, there are about 3,000 workers who spend 15 days at sea and 15 days on land.
Neft Dashlari is a joint venture belonging to SOCAR, the state oil company of Azerbaijan that is responsible for the production, processing and transportation of oil, gas and gas condensates, as well as the sale of oil, gas and oil products and gas.
According to SOCAR, the island was a crown jewel of Caspian oil production and has produced almost 180 million tons of oil in its 75 years of existence. At its peak in 1967, it extracted a record 7.6 million tons.
On the day of Today, daily oil production is less, almost 3,000 tons, according to the figures offered by SOCAR for January of this year.
A slow decline
The island had an enormous heyday, especially in the 1960s. But from the following decade, due to fluctuating oil prices and the slow decline of the Soviet empire, its splendor began to decline.
According to the German newspaper Der SpiegelIn 2012, only 45 of its 300 kilometers of roads were passable. In the documentary Oil Rocks – City Above The Sea (“Oil Rocks – A city on the sea”), filmmaker Marc Wolfensberger captures part of this decadence.
“All these roads were in good condition when I was young.”says a local worker on camera riding a truck that rattles along his path. The next shot is abandoned, demolished and rusty buildings.
Asked about the risk of the island sinking, due to its structure or due to climate change, Mirvari Gahramanli is blunt: “The island is not about to sink and for now no such risk is foreseen. Neft Dashlari is a strategic facility located in the sea. There are seabeds and wells. There oil is extracted, drilling, construction, installations, etc. are carried out.”
It is not easy to find updated photos or images of the place.
As a curiosity, the SOCAR page includes all the films filmed in the area, including “The World is Not Enough”, from the James Bond franchise, in the late 90s.
Although it can be reached by helicopter or boat, due to its nature, it is not a place that is easily accessible or for tourists. However, increasingly, with the fall in oil production and the decline that the island’s structures seem to have, it could not be ruled out as a tourist destination.
“The city has a future as a marine resort and tourist center,” says Mirvari Gahramanli.
Although, according to a study published in Communications Earth & Environmentthe Caspian Sea may drop 18 meters until the year 2100, which represents a loss of 34% of the surface of this sea.
In the study, scientists warned that this mass of water will drop between 9 and 18 meters by the end of the century, if emissions of polluting gases continue at current levels.
For now, a few kilometers away, in a few days the present and future of the climate on our planet will be debated again at COP29. An appointment for which its designated president, Mukhtar Babayev, said that “everyone’s effort” will be needed.
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