Photo-documentary, art and digital exhibition dedicated to the 15th Year of the Contract of the Century and the 130th anniversary of Nobel Brothers’ activity in Azerbaijan and presentation of a book “The Nobels and Baku Oil”

The opening ceremony of the photographic and multi-media documentary exhibition dedicated to both the 15th Year of the Contract of the Century and the 130th anniversary of the Nobel brothers in Azerbaijan and presentation of the book “The Nobels and Baku Oil” were held on 15th September 2009 at the Museum Centre. The vice-chairman of the Nobel Family Society, Ludvig Nobel’s great-grandson Gunnar Liljequist (Sweden) participated in this exhibition and book presentation. Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev made the introductory remarks. SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev spoke about the role of the Nobels in the development of the oil industry in Azerbaijan and about the Contract of the Century, the StatoilHydro representative presented the book “The Nobels and Baku Oil” and Mr Gunnar Liljequist made a speech emphasizing the importance of the project.

The exhibition itself displayed photos and documents covering the Nobel brothers’ time in Azerbaijan, their personal effects and an 8-minute documentary about the Nobel brothers and the development of Azerbaijan’s oil industry. What made this exhibition unique was that for the first time in Azerbaijan visitors experienced different interactive games and digital options marking a marriage of the traditional with the cutting-edge technology used in modern exhibitions. Visitors to the exhibition found out all they needed to know about the Nobel brothers and what they achieved by means of modern technologies.

The book “The Nobels and Baku Oil” dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the Nobel Brothers in Azerbaijan was presented at this exhibition. The book features the family tree of the Nobels and describes their activity in Russia in the 1830’s-1860’s and in Azerbaijan, especially in the Baku oil region, during the period 1874-1920. The book is about the role the Nobel brothers played in the development of Baku’s oil industry, the new technologies used by the Nobels in oil production, refining and transportation, as well as about their contribution to the public and social life of Baku. Unique photos and documents from that period can be found in the book. The chairman of the Nobel Family Society, Tomas Tyden’s foreword in the book draws special attention. He says: “When the donator of the Nobel Prize, Alfred Nobel died, a fair share of his fortune was not from his dynamite companies. It came from one of the worlds largest oil companies at that time The Nobel Brothers Petroleum Production Company”.

The organisers of this project are the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Azerbaijani Republic, StatoilHydro Absheron and the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic.

The authors of the project are Azada Huseynova, Naida Abbasova and Amina Malikova.