Sultan Gamzatov
From 1972 – Deputy Head of the Oil and Gas Department, First Deputy Head of the General Department for Scientific and Technological Progress in the Fuel and Energy Complex at the State Committee for Science and Technology of the USSR.
“Sabit Orudzhev thought of himself as a real sea dog...”
Theory and practice
Mr. Orudzhev produced many theoretical developments and inventions, including the tunnel-and-shaft method of oil extraction from the seashore. However, that project is yet to be realized.
Sabit Orudzhev thought of himself as a real sea dog. Back when he was the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Chemical and Oil Industry, he dreamed of creating an offshore oil industry.
And when Mr. Orudzhev became the Gas Industry Minister, he put forth a proposal to establish an offshore oil and gas industry ministry.
Sabit Orudzhev considered the issue an important and timely one. He made a lot of effort to solve it despite the objections of the USSR Oil Industry Ministry and the Ministry of Geology. The ministries raised objections because they were in charge of all the key offshore oil and geological exploration enterprises that worked on the continental shelf of the Caspian Sea, in the Far East, and in the seas of the Arctic Ocean. To hand these enterprises over to a new ministry would mean to lose not only these assets, but also great budget funds.
Yu. Zaitsev, S. Orudzhev, Yu. Vysheslavtsev, V. Chernomyrdin, I. Zhabrev, and P. Surov
Unexpected proposal
Nikolai Baibakov and Vladimir Kirillin supported Sabit Orudzhev's project as Deputy Chairmen of the USSR Council of Ministers. A corresponding decree was drafted and submitted for consideration by the USSR Council of Ministers. However, major decisions had to be agreed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party. They say that Sabit Orudzhev came to the Secretary of the Central Committee and asked to accelerate the decision-making process, assuming that he would head the new ministry. But when he learned that he would not be appointed as the head of the ministry, Mr. Orudzhev made an unexpected move. Just two or three days before the meeting of the USSR Council of Ministers, he prepared new documents to create the Head Office for Offshore Oil and Gas Fields Development under the Gas Industry Ministry.
Report at State Planning Committee of USSR. S. Orudzhev, N. Baibakov, and K. Smirnov
Forever with sea
At the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Mr. Orudzhev stated that the country did not yet have the framework required for the creation of an offshore oil and gas industry ministry. But while the geological exploration and oil industries had their own offshore enterprises by that point, the gas industry's offshore companies were still in the preparatory stage. With that in mind, Mr. Orudzhev thought it reasonable to establish an offshore-related head office under the Gas Industry Ministry and to go back to the idea of creating a separate ministry 3–5 years later when the framework would be in place.
This initiative was approved.
Shortly before the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Veniamin Dymshits asked Sabit Orudzhev:
“Sabit, why did you suddenly turn against the idea of the new ministry?”
Mr. Orudzhev undid the top buttons of his shirt and answered:
“Look, I'm an offshore oilman! I don't even take off this sailor undershirt when I go to sleep.”
