Ivan Mirzoev ( Armenian: Հովաննես Միրզոյան) (died 1880) was an Armenian businessman, the first person to drill oil in Baku and is considered one of the "founding fathers" of the Baku oil industry. [1] He founded the Mirzoev Brothers oil company, which at the time had become one of the most effective and sustainable companies in the world oil industry. [2] [3] He was of Armenian descent. [4]
Born into an Armenian family in Tbilisi, Ivan Mirzoev moved to Baku and began working in the silk trade. In 1855, he then opened a fishery company on the banks of the Caspian sea, which employed 2,500 people. [5]
In the years between 1821 and 1872, the Russian Czarist government maintained a monopoly over the Apsheron peninsula's oil fields. [4]
In 1863, through governments concessions, Mirzoev opened the first oil refinery in the Apsheron peninsula. [6] Mirzoev, who held concessions in Apsheron since 1863, immediately took up the opportunity to build his own drilling sites once the monopoly of the Russian government ended in 1872. [4]
In Surakhani, Mirzoev founded two kerosene factories and produced 160 thousand tons of kerosene, amounting to 260 thousand rubles. [7] This project made him the first exporter of petroleum out of Azerbaijan. [7]
In 1871, using wooden rods, Mirzoev drove a well 45 meters deep which produced a daily output of 2000 cubic meters in the Balakhany oil fields. [8] This because the first successful oil drilling operation in Baku's history. [9] [4]
The success of the drilling of Mirzoev was the first element contributing to the Baku oil rush. [4] Mirzoev eventually became a major purchaser of oil in and around Baku. [4]
After Mirzoev's death, his wife Daria, sons Gregory and Melkon, and daughter Maria founded the oil industry and the partnership known as Brothers Mirzoev with a grand capital of 2.1 million rubles in 1886. [2] The company remained active until 1918 when it was forced to shut down due to massacres against Armenians. [2]
Ter-Gukasov was the first tax-fanner for the oil lands, and was succeeded by Mirzoev, who would drill the first successful well
The first drilled wells were completed only in 1871-1872 by the last holder of the contract monopoly, Mirzoev.
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Among the earliest men to exploit the "black gold" of Baku were Armenians, including M. I. Mirzoev, who drilled the first successful well in 1871.