Pipeline infrastructure in the system of transportation of oil and oil products along the Volga-Caspian corridor in the late 19th – early 20th centuries

Annotation

The active development of the domestic extractive and refining oil industry, which began in the last quarter of the 19th century, set the task of transporting increasing volumes of oil and oil products. The supply of oil industry products to the domestic market of the country occurred from the Baku seaport along the Volga-Caspian transport corridor, as well as by land transport using the expanding railway network. It is noted that competition among oil producers and the beginning of the export of oil and oil products contributed to the attraction of engineering achievements to production, as well as the search for the most cost-effective methods of oil transportation, which became pipeline transport. The aim of the study is to analyze the role of pipeline infrastructure in organizing the transportation of oil and oil products along the Volga-Caspian transport corridor in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. A set of published legislative and statutory documents, as well as office and statistical materials from the funds of the State Archive of the Astrakhan Region and local periodicals were used as a source base. It is stated that the use of local oil pipelines (field oil pipelines) by large trading and industrial firms significantly reduced the time and cost of transportation, contributed to the displacement of horse-drawn transport and the expansion of the infrastructure of the Volga-Caspian transport corridor for the organization of loading and pumping of oil and oil products, an increase in the capacity of key waterways and railways, and an increase in oil cargo turnover.

Keywords

• oil pipeline
• Baku-Batumi kerosene pipeline
• transportation of oil and oil products
• oil industry
• post-reform period
• Volga-Caspian transport corridor
• cargo turnover
• port
• Transcaucasian railway
• Astrakhan
• Baku oil region
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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the grant of the Russian Science Foundation No. 25-28-00920 “Organizational and economic mechanism for the transformation of the Volga-Caspian transit route during the first Russian industrialization (mid-19th – early 20th century)”, https://rscf.ru/project/25-28-00920/.

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