No. 3, 2009

The commercial production of oil in the Perm Region began 80 years ago

It is difficult for people nowadays to imagine that just 100 years ago, virtually no one saw the Kama region as a promising territory for the development of the Russian oil industry. It was only in the 1920s that a well-known Soviet geologist, Academician Ivan Gubkin, was perceptive enough to suggest that there were petroliferous areas on the western slopes of the Ural Mountains. Almost by accident, a chain of widely differing events would soon be set into motion, leading to the discovery of oil fields in the Kama region on April 16, 1929.

Prof. Preobrazhensky's brainchild

In 1924, the Urals Division of the State Geological Committee assigned Pavel Preobrazhensky (1874-1944), a professor at Perm University, to examine the archives of all mining operations in the Urals. Having studied the available material thoroughly, he concluded that the area was highly promising in terms of potassium content. This was also indicated by older data: as early as 1916, granules of sylvinite had been discovered among samples from a Lyudmilinskaya brine-pumping well, while a number of samples from saltworks in Solikamsk and Usolye displayed signs of high potassium content.

Following his report to the Geological Committee, a decision was made to conduct exploratory drilling in the areas of earlier saltworks. Funds were allocated for organizing the efforts of a geological survey party to search for potassium in the Solikamsk area. The expedition managed to get a hold of a Calyx drilling rig and a Locomobile transportable steam power unit (from Great Britain and the United States, respectively), while the needed drilling tools and equipment were delivered from the Caucasus and the Urals.

Deciding where to drill the first well turned out to be a difficult task. Having assembled and analyzed all of the geological data, Prof. Preobrazhensky selected the outskirts of Solikamsk, on the banks of the Usolka River, a tributary of the Kama, as the best place. The drilling of the first well commenced at the beginning of September 1925. On the night of September 5-6, this first well revealed a massive formation of potassium salts (secondary sylvinite with a KCl content of 17.9%) at a depth interval of 91.7-92.3 m. Well No. 2, drilled 1,5 km to the west, discovered a potassium deposit more than 110 m thick. One after another, all of the wells drilled in 1926 would yield results indicating the presence of huge potassium deposits. The well-known Upper Kama potassium salts field was discovered in this way. Prof. Preobrazhensky himself would later say that the drilling produced "stunning results": 19 wells discovered enormous deposits of carnallite and sylvinite at both Solikamsk and Berezniki.

Upper Chusovaya oil sensation

To better define the boundaries of the newly discovered field, Prof. Preobrazhensky chose a site located near the Upper Chusovaya settlements, where table salt had been mined by the Stroganov family of industrialists as early as the reign of Peter the Great, for the drilling of the 20th well.

On October 18, 1928, a drilling team led by drillmaster Prokopy Pozdnyakov commenced drilling this well on the banks of the Rassoshka River, right on the spot where, according to legend, the Cossack leader Yermak embarked on the conquest of Siberia. A large proportion of the work was done by core drilling, with bore samples brought up to the surface. At a depth of 155 m, formations that might have contained potassium salts were penetrated, but no traces of the latter were found in the well. The heads of the Geological Committee began to demand that the work be halted. Prof. Preobrazhensky, however, insisted on continuing operations, and on March 30, 1929, a bore sample containing fissures was recovered from a depth of 328-331 m, and the exhalation of gas was noticed.

It was on April 16, 1929 that a sample almost entirely saturated with oil was recovered from a depth of 365-371 m. That day's entry in the drilling log described the sample as having "a rich film of oil with bubbles of gas." The first tantalizing indication of the Kama region's big oil had been noted.

A geologist named Slyusarev delivered the first bottle of oil to Sverdlovsk on April 26, 1929, where it was handed over to the Urals' regional office of the Committee for the National Economy. The following day, the regional newspaper Uralsky rabochy reported the discovery in an article titled "Oil Found in Urals."

The 7th Urals Congress of Soviets opened in Sverdlovsk on April 28, 1929. Since a Communist Party directive to "decisively increase the Urals' relative importance and bring them forward into the ranks of the USSR's major industrial areas" over the next five years had recently been issued, the appearance of the region's first oil was a kind of gift for local officials.

Pozhyakov's drilling team now continued working with twice their previous energy. At a depth of 400 m, oil-saturated limestone gave way to water-saturated rock, a sign that the lower boundary of the oil pool had been reached. Further drilling was suspended on May 1, 1929, in light of the very real possibility of a gusher and a complete lack of the tanks needed to collect and store the oil. It was decided that the well testing would be delayed one month, until early June.

The regional and national authorities were notified at once as to the discovery of the oil field. As early as May 8, 1929, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council for the National Economy (SCNE) adopted a resolution on oil exploration in the Urals. Preobrazhensky would establish the commercial importance of the well, and Uralneft, the first drilling division in the eastern part of the Soviet Union, would be formed. It was a sensation, the event of the year: the future of the region, and the nation, now depended on oil production!

The May 16, 1929 edition of the Perm newspaper Zvezda contained an article with the ringing title "Such Oil Never Before Seen in USSR": "Comrade Ukhtin, head of the USSR Geological Committee's technical department, told our correspondent that Urals oil differs in color and odor from that of Grozny or Baku. In terms of quality, Urals oil is better than that of Grozny and burns wonderfully.... There is no oil like it today in either Baku or Grozny."

Glowing over the reports from Perm, Academician Ivan Gubkin, a well-known oil expert, emphasized: "We may be dealing here with reserves of oil whose importance to industry is difficult even to imagine. One thing is certain: there is oil to be found on the slopes of the Urals range, and, judging from the preliminary data, it is there in quantities that are of commercial importance."

The opinion of a recognized oil expert played a decisive role in bringing about the signing, as early as May 18, 1929, of SCNE Order No. 731 on the creation of an extraordinary organization, the Uralneft Special Division, to manage all exploration efforts for oil and gas in the Urals.

A telegram sent from the North Caucasus local mining authority to the Communist Party regional committee for the Urals in May 1929 stated: "The newly discovered oil-bearing province is of exceptional importance to the Soviet Union. Desiring the rapid development of the area, we and Grozneft jointly assume responsibility for this new region. We are sending you all the equipment you require, along with 49 highly qualified workers." Skilled oil workers did indeed arrive soon from Grozny and Baku, the nation's most famous oil-producing regions.

On the right track

A government commission headed by Iosif Kosior, Deputy Chairman of the SCNE Presidium, arrived in Perm on May 21, 1929. The delegation wasted no time in boarding the steamboat MOPR, and arrived at the Upper Chusovaya settlements the very next day, May 22. Once the vessel was moored, a public rally was held right on the dock. The mood of the speakers and the many people who had gathered there reflected the slogan printed on a large banner: "We shall awaken a sleeping interior!"

It didn't take long for the commission to complete its inspection of the drilling site, or for Prof. Preobrazhensky to deliver a conclusive report. The results were clear to all, and gave new grounds for asserting the presence of big oil in the Kama region.

The initial testing of Well No. 20 took place over the first ten days of June, soon after the government commission had departed. It revealed that the yield of the gushing well was 40 tons per day. This was reported in the June 11, 1929 issue of the newspaper Pravda, the Party's main press organ. On August 15, 1929, the well was put into production and assigned a new number, No. 101.

It should be noted that, over the 11 years of its existence (right down to October 1940), around 8,000 tons of oil were produced at this pioneering well.

With the creation in June 1929 of Uralneft, the first drilling division in eastern Russia, headed by an experienced driller named Roman Buchatsky, the Upper Chusovaya settlements were transformed into a vast area of drilling efforts. One well after another was put into production. By the winter of 1929-1930, there were 29 wells in operation in the area of the Upper Chusovaya settlements, two wells in the Kizel-Gubakha area, and one well each in Cherdyn, Usolye, Shumkovo, and Ust-Kishert.

In 1933, the field produced around 15,000 tons of oil. That same year saw the opening of the Upper Chusovaya Refinery, at which the first gasoline made in the Urals was produced.

Today, LUKOIL-Perm is the largest oil- and gas-producing company in the  Perm Region. Total oil production for the LUKOIL-Perm group in 2008 was 11.7 million tons, while gas production stood at more than 1 billion m³. This figure is growing annually by an average of 3%. Plans for 2009 call for the production of more than 12 million tons of oil.

Speaking before a group of oil workers, LUKOIL-Perm General Director Alexander Leyfrid emphasized especially that "Perm oil has seen some very different times over the last 80 years. Each successive generation of oil workers has maintained and expanded upon the achievements of its predecessors. Today, Perm oil workers are highly-qualified specialists who work selflessly for the good of their native Kama region."