Azerbaijan is one of the major oil and gas producers in the world, producing some 33 million tonnes of oil and 35 billion cubic meters of gas in 2022.
The country borders the Caspian Sea, which is rich in fossil fuels. These fuels have helped to drive and grow Azerbaijan’s post-Soviet economy.
The Caspian Sea, also referred to as the world’s “biggest lake”, is home to one of the most unusual oil rigs ever seen.
Neft Daşları, which translates as “Oil Rocks,” is a maze of oil wells and production sites connected by miles of bridges.
According to the Guinness Book of records, it is the world’s oldest offshore platform, which during its heyday was home to 5,000 oil workers.
Founded in the late 1940s, the rig originally consisted of just one drilling well and a small house for accommodation.
In the following years and decades, Neft Daşları became home to nearly 2,000 wells and around 320 production sites.
These were connected by more than 100 miles of bridges, and over 60 miles of oil and gas pipelines.
A small city grew up around the rig, consisting of accommodation blocks, a theatre, shops, medical facilities, a football pitch and a heliport.
Documentary filmmaker Marc Wolfensberger visited the rig in the late 1990s, before making his acclaimed film “Oil Rocks: City Above the Sea” in 2009.
“It was beyond anything I had seen before,” he told CNN, adding it was like “a motorway in the middle of the sea,” stretching out “like an octopus.”
Neft Daşları has produced nearly 180 million tons of oil in its 75-year lifespan, pumping out a record 7.6 million tonnes at its height in 1967.
Its importance has dwindled over the years and production levels have shrunk to less than 3,000 tonnes a day (approximately 1 million tonnes a year), according to official figures.
The city’s population has shrunk to roughly 2,000, with workers usually doing 15-day shifts at sea and then 15 days at home on the mainland.
Despite the city’s decline, SOCAR (the state oil company that owns the rig) told CNN that Neft Daşları remains “an active asset with a unique role” for Azerbaijan.
