Author | Elvira Esparza

Neft Daşları is a floating city built on the sea to meet the demands of the offshore oil industry. It is the world’s first marine oil platform, constructed on sunken boats. At its peak, it featured 2,000 oil wells and 300 kilometers of bridges and roads connecting the city’s various infrastructures.

How did Neft Daşları come about?

Neft Daşları is located 100 kilometers from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and 55 kilometers from the nearest coastline of the Caspian Sea. It was Azerbaijan’s first oil platform and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s first offshore oil platform. Its name, Neft Daşları, translates to “Oil Rocks,” referring to the artificial structures constructed on offshore oil platforms.

The discovery of oil in Azerbaijan dates back to the third and fourth centuries, as evidenced by manuscripts from that time and accounts by Marco Polo. However, significant drilling for oil began only after Russia conquered the territory. During the First World War, 175 million barrels of oil were extracted from Azerbaijan’s wells. By 1941, Azerbaijan was producing 75% of the Soviet Union’s entire oil supply.

At the end of World War II, the Soviet government initiated a deep exploration of the Caspian oil region, conducting systematic drilling operations. Finally, in 1949, oil was discovered beneath the seabed, leading to the creation of Neft Daşları, the world’s first offshore oil platform.

The development of Neft Daşları with the Soviet Union

The construction of Neft Daşları was ordered by Stalin and built on seven sunken boats, including the Zoroaster, the first-ever oil tanker. This marked the beginning of its growth, eventually expanding to 2,000 platforms distributed across a network of artificial islands connected by 300 kilometers of bridges. Initially, it was built on wooden piles driven into the seabed. These structures served as drilling platforms and quays for ships to dock. The development of this floating city was facilitated by the relatively shallow depth of the sea in this area, which is only 20 meters.

During its peak years, 5,000 workers lived in the city, extracting 13 million tons of oil from the sea annually. The entire oil and gas production cycle was conducted in Neft Daşları, from extraction to the delivery of finished products. Moreover, marine engineering experiments performed there contributed to the development of other fields.

Following the construction of the oil platforms, in 1958, infrastructure was developed to meet the needs of the workers essential for maintaining operations. Two power stations, a boiler room, an oil collection station, purification plants, numerous two-story residential buildings, and a hospital were constructed.

During the 1970s, the city of Neft Daşları also featured shopping malls, apartment blocks, schools, a football field, a cinema, a library, and even a park. The city’s last residential buildings under Soviet rule were constructed in the mid-1980s.

The only significant challenge with Neft Daşları was transporting workers to the floating city. Traveling by sea could take between 8 and 9 hours, and it could be even longer depending on sea conditions. When Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the city in 1960 and saw how difficult it was to reach by sea, he ordered that the island be connected to the mainland by helicopter. Consequently, a heliport was built in Neft Daşları.

In terms of oil transportation, during the initial years, oil was transported in tankers. However, by 1981, as the volume of oil being extracted increased, a 78-kilometer-long pipeline had to be constructed to connect Neft Daşları with the Absheron Peninsula. This development rendered the ships used for transporting oil obsolete, leading to the abandonment of some facilities.

Rise and fall of Neft Daşları

The rise of Neft Daşları was closely tied to the Soviet Union and Stalin’s ambitious expansion plans. In fact, this field has produced 60% of the oil extracted from Soviet seas. Neft Daşları also aimed to explore more practical methods of constructing facilities at sea and to improve the oil extraction process. An example of these improvements is the implementation of a new drilling method, where multiple wells were drilled at various angles from the same platform.

However, with the fall of the Soviet Union, the city began to decline due to the substantial investments required for its maintenance. This, coupled with the discovery of oil in other inland areas where extraction was cheaper, led to workers relocating to these new sites and abandoning Neft Daşları.

Neft Daşları now belongs to the Republic of Azerbaijan. However, only two-thirds of its infrastructure remains, much of which is slowly disintegrating into the sea. Of the original approximately 300 kilometers of roads, barely 45 kilometers are still in use today, however, according to economists, dismantling the city built on the sea would be extremely costly. Nevertheless, as oil is still being extracted from Neft Daşları, around 2,000 people continue to live and work in its facilities. Furthermore, on its 60th anniversary, the Azerbaijani authorities decided to renovate several facilities and construct new buildings.

Can you visit Neft Daşları?

The truth is, given its location on the Caspian Sea, access is challenging. During the Soviet Union era, Neft Daşları was isolated due to security concerns. Today, Neft Daşları is state-owned and operated by SOCAR, the Azerbaijan oil company. Access is strictly controlled due to its industrial nature. Foreigners must obtain a special permit to visit the city, and obtaining one is not easy. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t even properly show up on mapping applications such as Bing Maps or Google Maps.

However, you can learn about the history of Neft Daşları through numerous documentaries, such as  La Cité du Pétrole  filmed in 2009, or see parts of its facilities in the James Bond movie “The World Is Not Enough,” which was filmed in Neft Daşları in 1999.

Despite the decline of Neft Daşları, other floating islands have emerged in places like the Maldives or Japan. These new projects are designed as sustainable solutions capable of addressing the challenges posed by climate change.

Images | Wikpideia, Azertag

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