45 km offshore on the Caspain Sea, Oil Rocks is unique in the world, a pearl of Soviet ambition built in several phases after 1947.

Oil Rocks is a full town on the sea: it has 200 km of streets built on piles and landfill, counting with a population of over 5,000 men (families stay on shore!). Most of the inhabitants work on shifts - a week on Oil Rocks a week on shore. There are tall blocks of flats, a bakery, a cinema, a garden, a school... Several action sequences in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough are set on the Oil Rocks.

The facility is poorly maintained, with miles of roads now submerged beneath the sea. Around some worker's dormitories, the waterline now stands at the second-floor windows. Although a full one-third of the Oil Rocks complex’s 600 wells is inoperative or inaccessible, operations have continued without a significant increase in investment.

A visit takes a whole day: you need to take a 3 and a half hour boat trip from Baku. There are also helicopters from Baku and from Artyom island.

If you are pressed for time visit a smaller complex, the Serebrovsky oil instalation, which can be reached by bus over an artificial dam, and then a pier stretching several kilometres out to sea.

(120 km east of Baku)
 

see also:  maps, Baku, Nardaran, Mardakan, Surakahny, Sumgait, oil, summary, places, images

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