Interesting article on Soviet oil

[engineer joke mode on]TA, did your oil brigade include Red Adair? No? Then no Baku oil [engineer joke mode off]

http://www.redadair.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Adair
http://www.nndb.com/people/731/000022665/

Kai, how long did the Ploesti fields take to come back on line after being bombed? How long did the German refineries take to be completely silenced? Baku is not a derrick in the middle of the steppe, it's a monster oil field spread along several quare kilometers.

Here's a view of one field. http://www.7is7.com/otto/travel/photos/20040617/baku_1_oilfields2.jpg

Taking into consideration the growing requirements in oil, the oil workers of Baku reached the record level of oil extraction in 1941 – 23.482 million tons.

...

By the autumn of 1942 764 wells were stopped and prepared for destruction and 81 sets of drilling equipment together with the personnel were sent to Turkmenia. At the same time, Baku provided the front with oil, restoring and exploiting the old wells.

...

In accordance with the decision of the State Defence Committee about 11 thousand oil specialists and a great number of equipment were evacuated from Baku to Tataristan, Bashgiria and other regions of Russia in October 1942.

http://window2baku.com/eng/9oil3.htm

They stopped 764 wells and kept on producing, while alternate sources were being developed. How were you going to destroy this, with more Goering promises?

 

Yes, Za,

wells could not be stopped I trust but trying to destroy to refineries would make things definitely harder.

In the end though , like I have mentioned, there was a 6 months reserve in the Siberia at least, and also oil would be sent by lend lease so I cannot say if bombing would make truly any difference. But instead of bombing Stalingrad the effort should have put in this area if some "help" was to be expected from bombing something.

 

You're right, but even if this managed to have a practical effect it would take a some time to be felt down at troop level. I don't see Hitler & Co. being able to think in the long term.

 

Bump! I think this old thread deserves a reread

 

Another couple of bits here:

The Economic Geography of Soviet Oil and Coal and Their Means of Transport

 

Hitler was obsessed with oil. He was obsessesed in protecting the oilfield in Rumania and was obsessed in obtaining the oil fields in the Caucasus. But as previously mentioned, he did not even think about denying the Russians access to the oil by having them bombed. I believe he did this because he honestly thought he would be able to obtain and hold those oilfields so he did not want to destroy them. Same line of thinking as to why the Generals could not get permission to blow bridges because Hitler wanted them intact to use in his counterattacks. Generals' response, 'Gegenangriff, mit vas!'

It also seems like the Generals were more interesting in destroying armies than destroying economic capabilities. I would have expected more of the General Staff.

 

Was'nt "Spring Awakening",the failed attempt at retaking Budapest, really for the oilfields?

 

Yes, in part. A desperate measure because the Hungarian output, or what was left of it, was largely symbolic but when you don't have anything else...

 

Nice to see some logic about why Hitler didn't bomb Soviet oilfields when he could. I suspect reason was behind fighting at Stalingrad as well - that since this was where the Red Army stood its ground this was the place to fight it. I'd be interested to see what effect Operation Blue had on German fuel stocks and transport capacity and whether Germany's southern armies could do much different by the time that the German army closed up to the Volga.

PS 'Stopped at Stalingrad' was really rather good.

 

Do you mind if I this thread up a bit? To me it's central to East Front strategy.

 

This is a very interesting thread. Where do you think the natives were to come in on this? We all know the troubles Russia has had in the region these last few centuries, basically every since they has decided to go there to begin with.

I can on one hand see Hitlers logic in going after Stalingrad, would you want the Russians to have that on your flank? Keep in mind, the Don retreat left a lot of the Russian army intact, on the other side of the Volga and in Stalingrad. I can also see the gamble he took going south. I'm willing to bet he was hoping for help from the natives in a big way.

 

This is pretty late to be a bump, but anyone know any other articles that support this information, since the article Za cited doesn't work anymore.

Does this seem to hold up true today? Any works that seem to support the views?