According to many museum professionals, historians and enthusiasts, the PJSC LUKOIL Museum collection is one of the best ones in the country in terms of the oil industry. It documents not only the Company's activities, but also the history of the national oil industry as a whole. The collection contains field equipment and scientific tools, household heaters and lighting devices, dummies and models of state-of-the-art industrial facilities, samples of oil and petroleum products, collections of postcards, medals, badges, signs, decorations, securities, scientific and science fiction books, albums and photos, as well as memorabilia of outstanding Russian oil industry professionals such as the Nobel brothers, D.I. Mendeleev, V.G. Shukhov, N.K. Baibakov, V.D. Shashin, Yu.S. Korchagin, and other.
A collection of the Nobel family
The Nobel Brothers Petroleum Production Company (Branobel), the largest in Russia, was founded in 1879.
It was established by the three Nobel brothers - Ludvig, Robert and Alfred - and by Baron Peter von Bilderling.
Ludvig’s son, Emanuel Nobel, took over the family business.
The company was engaged in production and refining in the vicinity of the city of Baku, and established its own logistics and marketing network with pipelines, tankers, tank wagons and farms featuring piers and branch railway lines all over the European part of the Russian Empire, and Europe.
Decorations for labor achievements ("Labor Record Setter", "Five-Year Plan Hero") were first awarded in the 1930s. Later on, as the economic management system of the country was transformed, and a move from economic councils to ministries was made and then back to economic councils again, the system of industry-specific decorations also reflected the changes. The PJSC LUKOIL museum collection includes decorations for geological services and fuel-and-energy sector, including "Honored Subsoil Explorer", "Field Discovered", "Honored Petrochemist", etc. The collection also features regional industry-specific awards of Azerbaijan SSR, the Komi Republic, Tyumen Oblast etc. Rare titles of "Honored Inventor of the USSR" and "Best Innovator" are also part of the collection. They were awarded for innovation achievements.
The rapid growth of oil production, which began in the second half of the 19th century was associated with the development of kerosene production technology. Kerosene lighting was used in urban and rural areas, at home and production facilities. Besides, kerosene was used as fuel in a variety of household appliances. The KEROSENE WORLD collection of PJSC LUKOIL's Museum prides itself on the genuine items of the 19th - early 20th century, which used kerosene. Among them, there are lamps and lanterns of various designs and purposes, stoves, soldering irons, kerosene samovars, a kerosene stove and a kerosene optical projector called the "magic lantern", as well as kerosene trade supplies.
In the late 19th — early 20th century the public interest for the oil industry was so high that special postcards dedicated to the "oil" topic were issued. The postcards kept at the PJSC LUKOIL's museum indicate a fairly extensive geography of the oil industry: Baku and Grozny regions, Central Asia and Pechora region, Kuban and Volga region. The collection includes postcards of oil rigs and refineries, images of oil barges and storage tanks for oil and petroleum products, as well as oil field fires.
As the domestic oil refining was developed, it became necessary to conduct laboratory studies of oil and petroleum products. Special laboratories were opened at the Petroleum Production Company Nobel Brothers, Baku Consolidated Oilfields, V.I. Ragozin Constantine plant, and others.
The collection of the PJSC LUKOIL's Museum represents genuine laboratory equipment and instruments of the late 19th — early 20th century: analytical scales, a microscope, an oil sample pump, a hydrometer set to determine the density of oil and petroleum products, an Abel-Pensky apparatus to determine the flash point of kerosene.
The First Russian Joint Stock Oil Company, Baku Consolidated Oilfields (BCO), was set up in 1874 at the initiative of V.A. Kokorev and P.I. Gubonin, famous Russian entrepreneurs. The principle of vertical integration, "from the wellhead to the consumer" was used as BCO business model for the first time. At the end of the 19th century dozens of domestic and foreign joint-stock oil companies were quite successful in Russia, which in 1898 helped our country surpass the U.S. in terms of the oil production output and hold the first place in the world for consecutive 4 years.
The collection of PJSC LUKOIL's Museum includes shares and bonds issued in different years by the leading domestic and foreign oil companies: Baku Consolidated Oilfields, Petroleum Production Company Nobel Brothers, I.N. Ter-Akopov Oil Industry and Trade Company,
Oil Industry and Trade Company Caspian Partnership, V.I. Ragozin & Co. Partnership,
English-Russian Maksimov Society, Caucasian Syndicate, Petroleum Industry Company Spiess, and many others. There are also securities of the Russian General Oil Corporation, the first domestic petroleum holding which consolidated more than a dozen major oil companies in 1912.
LUKOIL's museum collection of photographs composes a visual encyclopedia of the Russian oil and gas industry.
The displayed pictures of XIX - XX centuries form an image of the most common manufacturing processes. A considerable amount of different shots may be found: "Pyatakov" and "Grever" manufactories, the launch of the drill rig and others.
With the expansion of the oil companies the respective subject was imprinted on postal products.
The museum has more than 120 envelopes, postcards and letters dated from 1888 to 2011 at its disposal. Among these items (with images of rigs, refineries, barges and storage tanks) brought together from different countries, you may be particularly interested in the collection 'The Nobel Brothers' Oil Production Association'.
The first postage stamps that reflected the subject of the oil and gas industry appeared in the 1920’s.
Museum holds a great number of pieces confined to significant events. These were gathered from all over the world, including ones from Australia, Congo, Vietnam, Italy and New Zealand.
