ORGANIZATION OF PETROLEUM SHIPPING ON THE VOLGA-CASPIAN ROUTE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R013300180009-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 27, 2006
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 7, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
CLASSIFICATION SECRET
SECURITY INFORMATION
INFORMATION REPORT REPORT NO.
CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR
25X1 SUBJECT Organization of Petroleum Shipping
on the Volga-Caspian Route
DATE DISTR. 7 Aug. 1952
NO. OF PAGES 5
NO. OF ENCLS. 2
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES, WITHIN THE MEANING OF TITLE 18, SECTIONS 793
AND 794, OF THE U.S. CODE, AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR REVE-
LATION OF ITS CONTENTS TO OR RECEIPT BY AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS
I PROHIBITED BY LAW. THE REPRODUCTION OF THIS FORM IS PROHIBITED.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
25X1 1. the organization of petroleum shipments,
25X1 I Isome information on oil fields, ports, and pipe lines.
Oil Fields
2. Petroleum products shipped on the Caspian Sea come from around'Baku and
from the region of Tuymazy 4T436N-534t.,EJ in the Bashkir ASS?, 90 miles. west
of Ufa ,5SI-t~IIN-56ooJ. The Balu region has two groups of oil fields. The
first one., called Stalin Petroleum (StalinNeft)1.js on the Apsheronsldy
Peninsula, north and northwest of Faku, and the second, called Lenin
Petroleum (LeninNeft), is in the I19.ic h Bay (Bukhta imeni Ileicha), south
and southwest of Baku, After World War II there was a noticeable trend
to expand the oil fields in Ilricha By by drilling ground under the water
surface. In 1951, in an area covered by a three-mile radius from the shore,
there were already more than 100 underwater derricks. The crude oil from
either of the Baku fields yields up to 12 per cent of gasoline.
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3. More intense exploitation of the Tuymazy oil fields started some time
in 1948-1949. According to the Soviet press and other publications,
25X1 these-fields are very rich and are
reerre to in the USSR as a "Second Baku", Tuymazy oil is very
good and contains up to 14 per cent of gasoline. Transport of
Tuymazy oil on the Caspian Sea started in 1950.
4. From Baku only processed and refined petroleum products are shipped
on the Caspian Sea routes, with the exception of an occasional
tanker load of crude oil to Astrakhan. From Tuymazy, however, the
oil is shipped in its original crude form.
Caspian Ports and P ipe Lines
5. In order of importance the Caspian Sea ports rank as follows:
(a) Soviet ports: Baku, Astrakhan, Krasnovodsk, Makhachkala and
Gursyev..
(b) Iranian ports: Bandar-Shah, Pahlevi, Resht, Bandar-i-Gaz.
25X1 ell these pdrtp, except perhaps Resht and Bandar-i-Gaz
25X1 participate or at least
participated to some extent in petroleum shipments.
25X1 6.
25X1
25X1
(b
the following details about some of these ports:
There are two lighthouses in Baku, the Astrakhan lighthouse
(Astrakhanskiy Priyemnyy Kayak) and the Volga-Caspian light-
house. No lighting is required in Astrakhan, Makhachkala,and
aur'yev.
facilities consisted of one wooden pier, 4-500 m long, and two
large wooden warehouses. There were no hoists or -cranes and
no oil storage facilities. The harbor was shallow and the
approach to it was dangerous. At that time the USSR shipped
boiler mazut to Bandar-Shah for the operation of dredges which
were excavating a canal in the harbor. 25X1
During World War II and the first postwar years some shipments
of POL products were made to ranian harbors. These 25X1
shipments decreased constantly an in 1951 came to a complete
standstill. Crude oil was never shipped to any of these ports
by the USSR.
the port of Bandar-Shah,
the port
25X1 7. 1 only two pipe lines in the Caspian Sea region
'
25X1
There is an old pipe line from Baku _to Batumi and a newer one from
Peshnoy Island to Gur'yev:Plant 25X1
there was a pipe line from Makhao a a to Groznv. 25X1
Organization of Petroleum Shipments
8. The petroleum shipping service in the Caspian Volga region is usually
referred to as the Volga-Caspian Petroleum Conveyer. There are only
three state petroleum shipping companies which are involved in this
shipping, KaspTanker, ReydTanker and VolgaTanker. Due to the shallow
nature of the Caspian Sea, the petroleum shipments from Baku normally
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25X1 9
D
25X1
move north in three stages. KaspTanker takes the POL products
in tankers from Baku to the. 14-Foot Roadsteads,which is south of
the Volga delta. From there the petroleum products are moved in
barges to Astrakhan by ReydTanker and unloaded in the storage
tanks of GlavNefteSbyt, the Chief Directorate f& Oil S.ai. s0
From Astrakhan to the north petroleum shipments are carried in the
barges of VolgaTanker. 25X1
companies:
the following details on the operations of these three
The Caspian State Petroleum Steamship Company (Kaspiyskoye
Gosudarstvennoye Neftenalivnoye Parokhodstvo - KaspTanker)
has its headquarters in Baku. Its tankers take petroleum
shipments as far as the 14-Foot Roadsteads (Chetyrnadtsatifutovyy
Reyd), 70 miles south of Astrakhan, which is as far as sea-going
tankers can go. Other shipments are taken to Makhachkala and
to Krasnovodsk. In connection with this company the following
points should be mentioned:
(1) In Baku loading of the tankers is done at the pier either
by attaching hoses, 120-220 mm in diameter, directly to
the oil pipe line and placing the other end in the hold
of the tanker, or by means of stationary shore pumps.
It takes 12 hours to load. a 10-thousand-ton tanker with
gasoline, and four hours to load it with Diesel oil.
(2) There are three restricted areas in this region which are
permitted only for tankers. They are as follows:
a. In Baku the restricted area is about 3.5 km long and
starts from a point about 500 m west of the shipyard
Zakfederatsiya and extends to a point about 1.2 km
west of the Lenin textile mill in Sych. flee Encl B,
items 49 and 657
b. The second area is near Apsheronskiy Peninsula where
several 10-thousand-ton tankers are usually engaged
in loading oil.
c. The oil harbor in Makhaehkala, called Staraya
Neftegavan , is also out of bounds to all other ships
because tankers are usually there unloading petroleum
products, mainly mazut, from Baku, for the operation
of local plants.
The Astrakhan State Roadateads Petroleum Shipping Company.
(Astrakhanskoye Gosudarstvennoye Reydovoye Neftenalivnoye
Parokhodstvo - ReydTanker) has its headquarters in Astrakhan.
Its fleet, composed of tugboats and barges, forwards petroleum
products from the 14-Foot Roadsteads to Astrakhan Gur'yev$or
Makhaohkala, the operations
of this company:
(1) At the 14-Foot Roadsteads the transfer of oil products
from tankers belonging to KaspTanker to the barges of
ReydTanker, is done by means of hoses or by pumps installed
on the tankers. In order to speed up this operation,
barges are usually tied up on both sides of the tankers.
In this way a 10-thousand-ton tanker can transfer its load
of gasoline in 16 hours or a load of oil in six hours.
These products are normally taken to the storage areas in
Astrakhan for further distribution to the north, or'.to
Gur'yev.
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(2) Transport of POL products from Baku to Gur'yev is done
in four stages, as follows:
a. KaspTanker brings the products to the 14-Foot Roadsteads,
where they are transferred into five-thousands-ton barges
of ReydTanker;
b. The barges are towed to the Gur'yev Roadsteads which
are about 10 miles south of Peshnoy Island 649N-
5142;
c. At this point the petroleum products are transferred
into-smaller, 800-ton ReydTanker barges, called
P.au~.z.ki, which move their load to Peshnoy Island,, where
there are two wooden piers, each provided with one
steam pump. At the Gur'yev roadstead the transfer is
done by means of steam pumps installed on an old ship
(debarkader), the Nary, which is permanently anchored
there. The two pumps of the jr arnave a total
capacity of 150 tons per hour.
d. At Peshnoy Island the products are transferred to
(c)
stationary tanks, and from there they are
to Gur'yev and Plant 25X1
At night e ur yev roadstead is ed
up by several barges which have masts 20-30 m high,
provided with kerosene lamps. There is no real light-
house in Gur'yev.
On the return trips from Astrakhan,ReydTanker barges carry
Tuymazy crude oil south to Makhachkala,where it is allegedly
refined. Further transports of these products are probably
done by rail, since neither KaspTanker nor ReydTanker carry
any processed oil away from Makhachkala.
The Volga State Petroleum Steamship Company (Volzhskoye
Gosudarstvennoye Neftenalivnoye Parokhodstvo - VolgaTanker)
is under the administration of the Ministry of the River Fleet
(Ministerstvo Rechnogo Flota). It forwards shipments of
petroleum products up the Volga, as far as the mouth of the
Kama River. On the return trips down the Volga, this company
often carries shipments of Tuymazy crude oil to the storage
areas of GlavNefteSbyt in Astrakhan Iwhere they are 25X1
picked up by ReydTanker for shipment to a achka a. Since
1946 direct transfer of petroleum products from ReydTanker to
VolgaTanker is no longer authorized. From that time on these
two companies have been unloading their cargoes in the-storage
areas of GlavNefteSbyt,where they are inspected weighed,and
appraised before being 'sent on. neither of
the two steamship companies ever transpor a pae aged POL
products. No cover names are used for these products.
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12.
The average turnaround time for petroleum vessels operating on the
Volga-Caspian Petroleum Conveyer, inclusive of loading time, sailing
to the port of destination, unloading, and return to the home port,
is as follows:
KaspTanker 80 hours
ReydTanker 78-82 hours
VolgaTanker 320-400 hours depending on destination.
13. According to regulations, tankers and barges used for the transport
of POL products must be switched from dark to pale products and
vice versa. Pale products consist of gasoline, kerosene and ligroin;
dark products cover all types of oils, lubricants, fuels, and crude
25X1 oil. This alternation is prescribed to prevent corrosion,
which s very high when vessels are used for the transport of pale
products. In practice, however, this regulation is not complied with
because of the poor condition of the barge pool. Many barges are
leaky and can be used only for heavy, dark products,, and the good ones
are so much in use for gasoline transport that there is practically
no possibilityfor switching them from one product to the other.
The same applies to the tankers.
14. Cleaning of tankers and barges is done by hand. The cleaning
brigades are composed of women who are equipped with mops, brooms,
rags9and buckets. This work is extremely hard and so unhealthy that
some of these women faint every day. They are paid approximately
400 rubles per month and represent the most wretched workers in the
whole oil processing industry. All the offers and suggestions to use
machines instead of hand labor for this work have been turned down
by the steamship companies: because they are afraid to assume additional
material and legal responsibility for the maintenance of the machines.
This attitude is very characteristic of the entire Soviet economy, in
which persons who are entrusted with equipment and machines are made
personally responsible for any damage or breakdown. Punishments are
not merely fines but several years of forced labor.
-end-
Enclosures: (A) Plan of the Volga-Caspian Petroleum Conveyer
(B) Overlay of city plan of Baku (taken from
"Stadtplan von Baku gait Mil.-Ceo.-Objekten"
Sonderausgabe, Ausgabe No. 1, Stand 1932).
* 649N-5142E
*',7 a707N-5153E
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ENCLOSURE A
Legend
SECRET/SECURITY INFORMATION
KaspTanker Routes
ReydTanker Routes
(tugboats & barges)
VolgaTanker Routes
(tugboats & barges)
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A
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ENCLOSURE B, SECRET/SECURITY INFORMATION
Restricted Area In
B A K U
Lend
49 - Shipyard Zakfederatsiya`
65 - Textile mill Lenin in Sych
Overlay "Stadtplan von Baku mit
Mil.-Geo.-Objekten")
Scale appr. 1:15,000
010
65 19
z
25X1
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