THE BAKU OIL FIELDS

Crossing the Black Sea, we leave the steamer at Batum and take the train for Baku, the commercial centre of the greatest oil field in the world—a region where the supply of petroleum and natural gas seems almost inexhaustible. Immense subterranean oil reservoirs underlie this entire region and extend eastward under the Caspian Sea and beyond to the Balkan hills.

Not only do oil and gas exude from the ground, but, as in the California fields, they come up through the sea-bottom; the oil floats on the surface of the water and the gas, pure as that used in our cities, passes off into the air. In several places gas which bubbles up through the sea-water may be ignited; then for a long distance the sea seems to be aflame. In many places on the land a fire for lighting or heating purposes is made by thrusting a pipe down into the ground and igniting the gas which rises in the tube.

The waters of the Caspian Sea along the Baku shore are usually fine for bathing, but if the wind blows inland for a while the oil floating on its surface accumulates, forming a black scum on the top, putting an end to the bathers' sport until an offshore wind sets in.

Ten miles from Baku, once upon a time, there was a temple over a cleft in the rocks from which gas arises. The gas was kept burning, tended by Parsee priests, for more than two thousand years and until the advent of the modern oil well. This flame was a special object of adoration by the fire-worshippers who were the followers of Zoroaster, and many went there to pay homage to it.

In this region one may travel for miles and miles without seeing a tree, shrub, or blade of grass. The landscape consists of a rolling surface of rocks and sand. It is barren, dry, and destitute of all objects of interest. Sometimes for six months or more not a drop of rain falls to lay the dust. If we go into the section where oil-wells are sunk, a slight relief to the view is afforded by the mounds of sand marking the sites of oil wells, derricks, the inky petroleum lakes, and the huge iron reservoirs. But all around is dry and dusty save where the oil has mingled with the earth; there the surroundings are not only unpleasant to sight and smell but ruinous to peace of mind as well.

For twenty-five centuries this region has been famous for its petroleum, and for upward of a thousand years the surrounding peoples have had recourse to these springs to obtain supplies of oil for medicinal and domestic purposes. Herodotus has given an interesting description of them. Even in the early part of the twelfth century petroleum was an important article of export from Baku. Crude petroleum was used to anoint camels for mange. In the first part of the eighteenth century Peter the Great annexed Baku to Russia. After his death it was ceded back to Persia; but in 1801 it was again annexed to Russia.

To-day Baku is one of the important commercial cities of the Russian Empire. Its shipping is immense and to further its commerce there are magnificent docks. The city is built on the shores of a large bay, sheltered from adverse winds by an island that acts as a breakwater. The water-front has an anchorage for thousands of vessels. One may walk along the strand for eight miles and find ships lined up in front of the city the entire distance.

The Caspian is filled with various kinds of fish, and while bathing one might reasonably have the impression that he was swimming in an aquarium. In fact, this place is an ideal one for an Izaak Walton. On the islands beyond the peninsula, projecting out from the Baku section, petroleum gas has flamed for centuries, lighting the heavens at night with a lurid glare that is visible far out at sea.

In Baku Bay, between two peninsulas, there was a spot, now commercialized into a producing oil well, where the gas came to the surface with sufficient force to upset small boats. Many of the oil wells are spouters for a long time after they are first bored, and when they cease to spout they can frequently be made to renew their activity by deeper boring.

Wells have been pumped for years without the level of the oil being lowered in the slightest. Some of the wells which have caught fire accidentally have burned for years, sending up their pillars of fire to a great height. In a few instances the richest wells have made the owners practically bankrupt by overwhelming the buildings on adjoining property with sand and petroleum, spreading ruin far and wide before the flow could be checked.

A majority of the great oil wells are about ten miles from Baku, and a dozen pipe-lines convey the petroleum from them to Black Town, a suburb of Baku, where it is stored and refined. From one well alone the escaping oil would have brought more than five million dollars had it been saved.

Seemingly the crust of the earth for hundreds of miles around acts like a huge gasometer pressing down on the pent-up gases with its weight. Since the Caspian Sea is eighty feet below sea level, it is probable that the land bordering the sea has sunk since the gases and oil were formed. And this would, in part at least, account for the enormous pressure.

The spouting oil wells are called fountains. Some of them have yielded two million gallons each day for months, sending up jets three or four hundred feet high with a roar that could be heard several miles away. Great difficulty was found at first in stopping the flow when necessary by capping or gagging the wells, but after a time a sliding valve-cap was invented, capable of checking the flow of the most violent well. In order to prevent the enormous pressure from bursting the pipe and tearing up the ground, as soon as the pipe has been sunk part way the earth is excavated around it and the excavation is filled with cement.

Landing-place for commerce on the Caspian Sea
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It is said that one of these gushers threw up in a day more oil than is produced by all the wells in the United States. One well spouted oil for months before it could be gagged, and in the meantime flooded the surrounding country. Millions of gallons were burned to get rid of it and millions more were diverted into the Caspian Sea. Two wells are reported to have thrown up in less than a month thirty million gallons each.

At first sand is thrown out with the oil, and frequently it is ejected with such force that a plate of iron three inches thick struck by the stream is worn through in less than a day by this liquid sand blast. When the wells cease spouting and it is not deemed advisable to bore deeper, pumping is employed. Generally the oil coming from the wells is conducted into large, carefully tamped excavations in the ground forming ponds or lakes. In these huge reservoirs the sand and heavier parts soon sink, making the bottom impervious. After the settling the petroleum is either pumped into large iron tanks or sent directly to the refinery by pipe-lines.

Since petroleum is vastly cheaper than coal, the steamers plying on the Caspian Sea and the locomotives of many of the Russian railroads use oil for fuel. At one time so great was the accumulation of petroleum that it sold at the wells for a few cents a ton. A fleet of tank-steamers conveys the oil products to the interior of Russia by the Caspian Sea and Volga River route.

The crude petroleum of Baku yields a lower percentage of kerosene than the American wells, but it contains more lubricating oil. Millions of gallons of lubricating oil are shipped from Baku each year to all parts of Europe. On the opposite side of the Caspian there are great cliffs of mineral wax such as is obtained from petroleum and used extensively in the manufacture of paraffin candles.

More than two hundred different products are made from petroleum, among the chief of which are kerosene, lubricating oil, benzine, gasoline, vaseline, and paraffin.