The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1921-11-26
Baku, Russia's
Great Oil Field
Will Cease to Produce in Six
Months More

a Staff Correspondent of The Asso-
ciated -Press) Within six months
the oil fields, lying within a few
miles Of this city and once count
ed among the richest petroleum
wells in the world, will have ceas-
ed to produce. according to expert
opinion, unless new machinery and
better and more workmen are OBJ
tanned.
This condition is acutely realiZ-
ed by the local Azerbaijan govern
ment which is controlled by Mos
COW. If the Oil is not forthcom-
ing, this will mean the stopping of
the oil-burning steamers of the
Caspian Sea, several hundred in
number, the 1000 or more tug
boats and steamers of the Folga
still in repair. and the oil-burning
locomotives of the entire railway
system of greater Russia. =
Efforts are being made to obtain
machinery, possibly from the
United States, by NJ. SerabrovslSy, 4
trained engineer and now general
director of TIE oil fields, and also to
induce workmen to work.
The pre-war production averaged
annually about 00,000,00O
pounds of crude petroleum, and
this year it will run about 5,000,-
100000 at best. There have been
but a few new wells this year and
the old ones function slowly. The
opening up of the pipe line to Ba-
tum. for foreign export is out Of
the question. as there is not enough
oil and Russia consumes much Of
the present supply. herself.
The general cause given for this
condition is described by compel
ent oil engineers, long on the field,
as the "gangrerle of Soviet control.
whatever the Communists touch
seems to go. to rot, declared one
engineer. "It seems likely a IA
tality and the worst Of it is that no
amount of new machinery here will
remedy the situation. New ma
cl1inery would be broken up by in
competent workmen just as the
old machinery has BEEN.
This is a rather gloomy view
taken by an antf-Bolshevik. The
oil fields began to slow down four
years ago. The present Moscow
rule has severely suffered from the
sins of its predecessors here.
It is feared there will be much
difficulty in buying new machinery
this winter, though the Azerbaijan
government has a commercial mis-
sion at Constantinople that may go
to the United States to get capital
or credits for the machinery.
The labor situation is much more
clear. Russia is denuded of her
best thinkers, imperialists and Com
munists, and likewise of her train
ed workers. In the oil fields where
are needed $4,000 men, there are
now possibly half that number, and
few of them trained, and employ
ers say even these are disinclined
to work.
Before the war there were 125
private companies here, and each
with a managing director, and now
the work of all these directors falls
on the shoulders of a few men.
The worknen get one and q half
pounds of black bread per day and
soup, with neither butter nor meat
and a pay Of 5000 rubles Give to
ten cents) per month, which is
just the price of a pound OF bread.
New workmen are being brought
in from among the troops of Cen
eral Wrangel in Constantinoplea and
also from the famine zones, but
with it all there seems no way to
keep the men satisfied, or proper
ly fed.
BLACK Town, as is called the
oil refining and delivery district.
presents a sad sight as compared
to the old days. The buildings of
the Nobel refinery, the most impor-
tant Of the companies, represented,
are going to ruin. Makeshifts are
the rule everywhere.
When the Moscow Soviet took
over the Azerbaijan republic a year
and half ago by buying up its
officials and sending in the 18th
Red army, it expected to get oil
for nothing.