"The Baku oil field is one of the richest in the world. First exploited in the middle of the last century, it greatly increased its production during the Soviet regime and it now provides three quarters 9f the Russian oil output. The best year for the Baku production was 1937, when the output totalled about 23,250,000 tons. The figure fell slightly the following year; for 1939 no figures are available. Baku is reckoned to have no less than 1,500,000,000 tons of reserve oil and its production is capable of great expansion, The Baku oil trust, called Azneft because Baku is the capital of the Province of Azerbaijan, has modern refineries and cracking plants, estimated to be able to handle two-thirds of the total production. In 1913 Baku produced considerably more than 7,500,000 tons of crude oil. In 1920, when Azerbaijan was first Sovietized, the figure fell below 3,000,000. Since then it has steadily improved. According to the third Five-Year Plan, which is now in its third year, Baku production. should total 27,000,000 tons by the end of 1942, This is not excessive in view of the rich new wells opened in the Baku region, specially in the sectors of Kala and Lokbatan. Indeed, the second Five-Year Plan originally contemplated similar figures, which were later found to be too high for reasons that had very little to do with the cil industry as such. Under the control of Mr. Kaganovitch (minister-in-charge) ix is confidently believed oil production of the U.S.S.R. in general and Baku in particular can be increased considerably. This year Russians talk of 25,000,000 tons as reasonably possible,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.