One of the main factors behind the success of the Nobel Brothers Company business was the way they invited skilled, hard-working and highly professional specialists to join the company. Most of the people in the managerial staff were Swedes, but a man from Norway came to play a crucial role in the Branobel history.
The name Karl Wilhelm Hagelin is associated with the Brothers Nobel Paraffin Company, specifically the activities of the Baku office. In addition to the documents preserved in archives, Hagelin’s own memoirs Min arbetsbana (My Career) is a unique window onto a Russian-Swedish life.
Finnish know-how in engineering made a substantial contribution to pumping Kazakhstan oil in early 20th century and building the first oil pipelines from the Dossor field in western Kazakhstan to the north shore of the Caspian Sea. That made camel caravans obsolete.
Säde Nenonen is a journalist and writer at the Helsingin Read more >
A harsh climate and many diseases claimed victims among Branobel’s employees in Baku. In 1882, Ludvig Nobel decided to improve the conditions for the Northerners and started construction of Villa Petrolea – a residential district for the company’s employees.
On 24 September 1884, Ludvig Nobel writes a letter to his daughter, Anna. He is happy about the acclaim he has received for his own endeavours to create a good life for his employees in the "Villa Petrolia" residential suburb. But the water needed to realise his dream of a green oasis in the semi-desert of Baku is still lacking.
Many untold stories are hidden among the more than nine thousand records of the Nobel company’s activities in the archives in Azerbaijan.
Newly discovered rich oil fields around Baku draw Nobels and Rotschilds into the Transcaucasia. The competition between the two families gets ever tougher in particular because of Batumi port.
The development of the Caucasus Oil industry directly affects Rockefellers’ “Standard Oil”’s European monopoly. In order to better compete with the latter Ludwig reinforces “Branobel”’s positions in the Black Sea and initiates the building of the longest pipeline through Georgia.
Emil Avdaliani is a Georgian writer who has a bachelor Read more >
