Grant Margulov
President of the International Fuel and Power Association, Director of the Power Industry and Civil Society Center.
“Orudzhev had an amazing gift of foresight…”
Groundbreaker of his time
Orudzhev was a Doctor of Engineering and a pioneer of superdeep drilling and offshore oil development. It was he who set up the first Offshore Oil and Gas Fields Exploration and Development Head Office in the country, and took charge of the construction of the first ice-resistant foundation in the offshore part of the Strelkovskoye gas field, where construction technologies for the first offshore production wells were tested. It was his initiative to conduct feasibility studies for the construction of the first offshore oil and gas pipelines across the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the Black Sea. He wore his navy admiral uniform with great pride.
Power to see potential in every individual
I clearly remember how I – then Chief Engineer of the First Main Directorate under the Gas Industry Ministry and a member of Kortunov’s team – was called for an interview with Orudzhev to the Ministry’s Collegium headquarters at 20 Kirova Street. The conversation was short. “I know everything about you,” says Orudzhev. “You will be put in charge of the Economic Planning Directorate of the Ministry and also serve as a Collegium member. As a former top manager of a large production association and Head of the Engineering Directorate, you will find it easy to address crucial issues related to the industry’s economic development.” Later on, as the First Deputy Minister of the Gas Industry, I saw the depth of wisdom he displayed in dealing with human resources.
Orudzhev was a man with an exceptionally strong will, a complex personality, and incredible perseverance. It was remarkable how he could be simultaneously exacting, respectful and generous in his relationships with subordinates. He supported and encouraged tenacious, bold and committed specialists in every way, and at the same time he tried not to hurt those who were meek and lacked initiative.
Oratory lessons
Sabit Orudzhev was an eloquent speaker and debater, and his speech was always precise, flawlessly logical, colorful, and tinged with humor. He had a natural ability to focus on the most important things and to prove his case.
As a result, the USSR Government issued resolutions aimed at solving the strategic tasks to accelerate the development of the gas industry: long-term development of the gas industry in Western Siberia and the Orenburg Region; construction of multi-string high-pressure gas trunklines; development of the mechanical engineering and pipe industries; and creation of new R&D institutions in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Saratov, Donetsk, Simferopol, and other cities.
Revolutionary ideas
Among the major programs and projects that were put forward by Sabit Orudzhev and basically achieved in a short period of time were: advanced preparation of new recoverable gas reserves; creation of large gas production regions and transfer of gas flows from these regions to the central part of the country and the Urals; and the Central Asian industrial hub and the Central Asia – Center gas trunkline system.
Mr. Orudzhev inherited and expanded the managerial and engineering framework for the massive transition of the gas industry from fuel-oriented production to gas processing. This brought into existence the Orenburg, Mubarek, Shurtan and Astrakhan gas chemical complexes focused on producing gas sulfur, helium, ethane and other valuable products.
Analytical skills
He had an amazing gift of foresight. After carefully studying the options for Siberian gas and having a local business meeting with experts, he made the following nationwide statement at the Communist Party Congress: “To produce a trillion cubic meters of gas per year in our country is not wishful thinking but a feasible task.” He claimed that we had “all the prerequisites for creating a resource base in Siberia to attain the trillion-cubic-meter level of gas production.”
Joint meeting of Gas Industry Ministry and Oil Industry Ministry of USSR
He personally contributed to laying the scientific and institutional foundation for large-scale development of the Yamal gas production hub, and for tapping oil and gas resources of Eastern Siberia by the beginning of the 1980s. Mr. Orudzhev believed that gas chemical production on a massive scale in the eastern regions of the country could become a new priority area.
Forecast fully materialized
Sabit Orudzhev used to say: “Natural gas, as the younger brother of oil, will eventually become the main driver of progress in human civilization.” In mid-1992, Russian researchers reached a key conclusion: the advances of geological science, including the drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole, had dramatically changed the contemporary view of the Earth’s structure and the global processes occurring inside.
A kind of scientific breakthrough took place in the estimates of natural gas resources, revealing a vast quantity of unconventional gas resources that exceeded the volume of forecast conventional gas resources by several orders of magnitude. As a result, the restrictions on hydrocarbon production for the gas industry were practically lifted.
Baibakov and Orudzhev were convinced that after non-associated gas, the gas industry would turn to the huge resources of methane dissolved in formation waters, and to solid gas in the form of hydrates, for which new technologies would be needed. They often said that the key challenge in this area was financing.
Life principles
It should be said that Mr. Orudzhev was guided by the same principle in his life and work: not just to live, but to live for a purpose. Speaking of his life philosophy and political stance, I will stress these key principles: the primacy of state interests over the interests of an individual, patriotism and concern for the glory and greatness of the Motherland, wisdom, courage, pluck, and integrity.