PETROLEUM WORKERS SPUR TECHNICAL PROGRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320929-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 929
• Publication Date: July 13, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320929-5 .
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE. AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
Economic - Petroleum
Daily newspaper
Moscow
22 Jun 1950
THIN DOCUIIIIT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DIPIISI
of IHI UNITED STATES WITHIN THI HUMS/ or SIPIOIASI ACT 10
Y. I. C.. SI AND TSNN. AS ASINDID. ITS TIANIIISSION OI THE IITILATION
Or ITN CONTES IN ANY ^ANHEI TO AN UTAVTIUOIOI0 PER ON IS na
N101 TID BY LAW. IIPNOOUCTION OF THIS WOES IN PROHIBITED.
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
DATE DIST. 6 Jul 1950
NO. OF PAGES 4
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
PETROLEUM WORKERS SPUR TECm ICAL PROGTRESS
N. Baybakov
Minister of Petroleum Industry USSR
The trend toward outstanding work methods and technical progress is wide-
spread in the petroleum industry. At a recent All-Union meeting of innovators
of the petroleum industry in Moscow it became clear how rich in talent the
USSR is. Innovators have improved the industry by introducing new, highly pro-
ductive processes and effective methods of exploring petroleum deposits, drill-
ing wells, and extracting and refining petroleum. .
Important achievements have been attained in drilling oil wells. In 1949
the volume of oil-well drilling was almost twice that of the prewar level, and
the volume of exploratory boring was more than three times as'great. Quality
indexes also have improved considerably. The average speed of turbodrilling
has tripled during the past 2 years in oil fields in Tuymazy, Krasnokamsk, and
other regions characterized by very hard rock.
Drilling innovators, by improving their work organization and skillfully
availing themselves of outstanding domestic technique, were able to achieve a
speed. in oil-well drilling of 1,000 to'1,500 meters per machine-month in areas
where.before the war the speed did not exceed 200 meters.
On the initiative of drillers of Buzovnyneft', Krasnokamskneft', and Tuy-
mazaneft' Trusts, the forced (forsirovannyy) method of drilling has been widely
adopted, and has led to a considerable improvement in the utilization of equip-
ment and in technical and economic indexes.
In many areas there is extensive competition to shorten the oil-well-
building cycle and to eliminate the lags between completion of drilling one well
and the start of another. Planned organization of all drilling and derrick-
assembly work and creation of the first multiple-purpose brigades more than
doubled productivity.
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A number of engineers and innovators have introduced a method of large-
block construction and assembly of drilling equipment which has shortened the
time required for the construction of derricks and the assembly of equipment
to one-third to one-fourth of what it was previously. This method has now
been widely adopted.
A number of engineers and skilled workmen have solved the important prob-
lem of exploiting the considerable reserves of petroleum under rivers, lakes,
capital constructions, and the bottom of the sea. By drilling special sloping
wells in Baku, Krasnokamsk and the Volga region, more than a million additional
tons of petroleum were extracted, reducing capital investment tens of millions
of rubles. Petroleum workers mastered the art of drilling sloping wells in a
remarkably short time.
The new, progressive, multiple-shaft method of drilling oil wells also is
being successfully introduced. This method was proposed by a number of engi-
neers and innovators.
Equipped with outstanding domestic technique, USSR petroleum workers in
the fourth quarter of 1949 exceeded the level of petroleum extraction estab-
lished by the Five-Year Plan for 1950.
The new regions in eastern USSR have achieved particular success. Petro-
leum extraction here has risen several times above what it was in 1940. Stalin's
directive to undertake the organization of a petroleum base in the area of the
western and southern slopes of the Ural Mountains is being successfully carried
out.
Only under the conditions of a planned socialist economy is it possible to
work petroleum and gas deposits as a single unit on a strictly scientific basis,
assuring the solution of all problems connected with the exploitation of these
deposits, and taking into account hydrodynamic, geological, and economic fac-
tors.
The introduction, into Tuymazaneft' Trust and Krasnodarneft' Association
deposits, of the new, scientifically based system of working and the technology
of exploiting deposits assured the extraction of more than a million additional
tons of petroleum in 1949. It was shown that it was possible to continue to em-
ploy the cheapest method of petroleum extraction, the gusher method, for some
time.
Measures also have been carried out for the efficient exploitation of re-
serves in old oil fields. Deep-well pump exploitation has been revised on a
broad scale on the basis of modern, outstanding Soviet technique. In this mat-
ter, petroleum workers of Azneft' Association have achieved particular success.
A group of innovators headed by Ovnatanov, chief engineer of the Azneft' Associa-
tion were presented with a Stalin Prize.
It is impossible to gain an increase in the number of operating wel]R writh-
out organizing proper maintenance and technical control of their work, without
underground repair work and improved methods of exploitation. Laureates of V"
Stalin Prizes Agasaf Bagirov and Aga Guseyn Kafarov, and hero of Socialist Labor
Mindubayev performed a great service in this matter.
Working the rich petroleum deposits under the Caspian Sea was considered
a very complicated technical problem. It was solved by a number of engineers
and innovators by organizing the exploration and working of maritime deposits
from separate bases (osnovaniye) built in the sea and from trestles (estakada)
built on the coastal zone. The development of petroleum fields located in the
sea, in Azerbaydzhan SSR and Dagestan ASSR, equipped to meet all the requirements
of modern technique, is one of the greatest achievements in the field of working
petroleum deposits.
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The many daring technical innovations and outstanding methods of work
introduced into petroleum refining have led to an increased range of light
petroleum products, the creation of new, highly important types of petroleum
products, and the solution of a number of very important problems in the
technique and technology of petroleum refining.
Because of the-successes of petroleum machine-building plants, the pe-
troleum industry is no longer required to import equipment. Productivity
per worker in petroleum machine-building plants was more than twice as high
in 1949 as in 1946.
Future success in the extraction and refining of petroleum is being
determined today in a large measure in construction areas where tens of
thousands of workers, engineers, and technicians are working intensively to
create new oil fields and plants. Capital construction being carried out
by the Ministry of the Petroleum Industry claims one of the leading places
in the USSR national economy, both for volume and for complexity of work.
Outstanding workers are introducing many innovations into the production and
organization of construction operations. The innovators include a number of
laureates of Stalin Prizes. During the past year approximately 45,000 ef-
ficiency proposals were advanced. Work put into effect by the innovators re-
sulted in a saving of more than 240 million rubles.
The goal set by Stalin for increasing petroleum extraction to 60 million
tons during the next five-year period demands a further accelerated rate in
exploration and exploitation of petroleum deposits. It is necessary to intro-
duce into drilling the innovator-drillers' outstanding methods and types of
work organization. The forced method of drilling must be widely adopted.
The creative thought of innovators and all drillers should be actively
directed toward steady improvement or organizational work and production in
drilling, acceleration of drilling machine turnover, solving organizational
disturbances in oil-well construction, gaining more complete and efficient use
of time consumed in drilling work, and ending breakdowns during drilling.
The work of putting back into operation idle oil wells, which was started
in recent years particularly by the Azneft' Association, should be expanded in
every way. Exploiters need to increase the attention given to organization ofO0
technical maintenance and control of operating wells, and to more rapid ex-
ploitation of new wells.
Producers and workers in scientific research organizations should collabo-
rate with the innovators to determine the most advantageous repair intervals
for petroleum well work, and on the basis of this conclusion, suggest a way to
convert operating wells to planned preventive repair.
A steady increase in the number of operating oil wells is the goal toward
which all exploiters must strive. It is also necessary to raise the produc-
tivity of the wells already in operation.
Petroleum workers are faced with very great responsibilities. The task
set by Stalin of increasing the range of light petroleum products and of im-
proving the variety and quality of all petroleum products at the same time
must be solved in the technological plane for new plants and the reconstruction
of old ones.
Petroleum construction workers are not yet fulfilling the state plan and
are lagging also in the matter of lowering the costs of construction. It is
impossible to tolerate this. The tasks set by the Party and the government of
putting into operation new capacities and sharply decreasing construction costs
must be fulfilled.
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The petroleum workers-innovators are making an important contribution to
the development of the Soviet petroleum industry by their successes. The work
methods of outstanding persons must become the property of all petroleum work-
ers.
On the initiative of Bashkir petroleum workers, socialist competition is
developing to fulfill ahead of schedule plans for drilling oil wells, for the
extraction and refining of petroleum, and for construction work. Managers of
enterprises, trusts, and associations, as well as trade-union organizations,
must assure widespread extension of this competition to all petroleum regions.
The most important task consists in assuring the completion of the 1950
state plan ahead of schedule, and in preparing conditions for more rapid de-
velopment of the petroleum industry in subsequent years.
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50X1-HUM
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