Emerging and Development of Petroleum Industry in the Russian Empire

Abstract

Historical achievements of the Russian Empire in the formation of oil industry in the second half of XIX and in the beginning of XX centuries are studied in this article. It is shown by actual cases that practically all principal technologies in oil extraction, transportation and refi ning have been invented and implemented in the industrial production by Russian scientists, inventors, engineers and entrepreneurs. Both their names and contributions into creation of the oil industry are indicated in the article. Speaking of priorities, the author shows that the world’s first oil industrial well was drilled exactly in Russia, first refi nery and petrochemical plants appeared, first pipeline and fi rst tanker were built, and the world’s first vertically integrated oil company was formed. Russian invention of the world’s fi rst industrial cracker, which gave to the economy a new kind of fuel — gasoline, occupies a special place. We would not have gasoli ne without cracking, and without gasoline we would not have automobile; in this case the world economy would take a diff erent way in the XX century.

Keywords:

petroleum, petroleum refining, refinery, petrochemical (mineral oil), kerosene, petrol, V. A. Kokorev, D. I. Mendeleev, V. I. Ragozin, V. G. Shuhov, Nobel brothers, A. Rothschild