Monday, September 20, 2010

20 September - oil workers day in Azerbaijan…

As a foreword let me start with telling that there have been cases when people that have never been and vaguely heard about Azerbaijan would ask questions like…“is that true that once one lands in Azerbaijan he/she smells oil right away?”…or “does oil really run down the streets in Baku?”…what to answer to questions like this? Just “no” or maybe it would be more fun to answer “yes” :)

A year or so ago I came across a modern art exposition of one of foreign artists who gathered the spills of oil in suburbs of Baku in her show room and made a story and exposition around this theme…I must confess that the smell in the room was the smell I knew and it was a very “native” smell :)

But let me mention in this post today that I am not sure about the smell one feels landing in Baku since I am used to it and won't be able to comment and also no, the oil does not run down the streets in Baku and never did.

Caspian suffers from pollution (just in case if you never heard before Caspian happens to be the biggest lake in the world) and some suburbs of Baku are still polluted too…But as I mentioned before things come in a “package”; thus oil comes with smell and radiation but transforms into strategic product and wealth....
Going back to oil workers day...People that are involved in production exploration exploitation etc and turning oil into strategic product are the assets of the industry and not only. I want to mention my father, Nadir Qiyasov, who is not only knowledgeable and experienced geophysicist but I would say talented professional who seems to know every inch of Absheron peninsula. He got his initial education in Oil Academy in Azerbaijan and he and his fellow students are/unfortunately by now many of them were precious assets of the industry and the country overall.

My post today is devoted to my dear father and to all oil workers of Azerbaijan who turn oil (definition of oil in Wikipedia - naturally occurring, toxic, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, and other organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface) to black gold and well-being of their country and people…
this is how oil exploration looked in early XX century...
late XX and early XXI century...
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