The Economic Geography of Soviet Oil and Coal and Their Means of Transport in the Second World War

Oil Production

(in thousands of tons)

	1940	%	1945	Notes
Baku	22,000	68	11,541
Groznyy	2,400	7.5	890
Maikop	2,200	6.8	700
Georgia (1939)	330		36
Dagestan (1939)	250		550
Turkmen (1938)	300		629
Cen. Ukraine (1953)			250	includes Carpathians
Estonia (1939)	180+657			(Distilled +undistilled)
Carpathians (1939)	250
2nd Baku	3000	9.3	2833
Emba (est.)	400		788
Ukhta-Pechora	200		700?
Central Asia (1939)	380		517
Sakhalin	588	1.8	1200?
Total	32,168		19,436
Harrison quotes 31,100 produced in 41 and this has been confirmed by other sources, but I cannot find another breakdown of oil production by regions.
2nd Baku is what the Soviets called the Trans-Volga oilfields like Saratov and Kazan

The big question is why did the production of Baku decrease by nearly 50% by 1945 since it was never bombed by the Germans. Is this a result of a failure to repair or replace essential equipment in the oil fields as well as a failure to drill new wells when existing ones ran dry? Or perhaps something as simple as a labor shortage?

Oil Transportation Methods

(in millions of tons)

	1940	% of total	1950	% of total
Pipelines	7.9	11.1%	15.3	19%
Railroads	29.5	44.5%	43.2	50.8%
River	9.7	15%	11.9	13.6%
Sea	19.6	29%	15.4	16.6%
Totals	66.4		86.2

Source:

Economic Georgraphy of Transportation, USSR by M.I. Galitskiy, 1965

Oil Transportation Methods

(Percentage of ton/kilometers)

Carrier	1940	1953
Railroads	55.2	69.1
Internal Waterways	18.3	12.3
Maritime Vessels	20.8	11.8
Pipelines	5.7	6.8

Source:

Soviet Transportation Policy by Holland Hunter, 1957 (It is unclear how the Caspian Sea traffic is counted in this table.)

Commentary:

Only 9% of all oil delivered to the Leningrad Oblast in 1939 arrived solely by water; the figure for the Moscow Oblast was only 13%.

Major Pipelines:
Baku-Batumi
Makhachkala-Armavir-Tuapse
Groznyy-Armavir-Rostov-Trudovaya
Krasnovodsk-Ashkhabad in Turkmenistan
Guryev-Orsk in Turkmenistan

Coal Production

(in millions of tons)

	1940	%	1945	%
Don Basin	85.5	55.8	36.9	25.7
Moscow Region	9.9	6.5	20.0	15
Kuznets	21.1	13.8	28.9	20.2
Pechora	0.2	0.2	3.3	2.3
Urals	11.7	7.6	25.1	17.5
Karaganda	6.3	4.1	25.1	17.5
Central Asia	1.9	1.3	1.7	1.2
East Siberia	8.5	5.6	7.6	5.2
Far East	0.6	0.4	7.0	4.8
Georgia	0.6	0.4	0.6	0.5
Other	0.4	0.3

Source:

Kuzentskii ugolnoi bassein v gody Velikoi Otechestvenoi voiny by I. I. Zelkin, quoted in The Economics of the Second World War by György Ránki

Commentary:

Ranki states that the Soviets could barely survive the loss of the Don Basin coalfields and that a severe shortage of coal existed until the Don coalfields were recaptured and reconditioned. Even then some shortage of coal existed. The use of wood was greatly expanded during the war to make up some of the deficit. Wood accounted for roughly 20% of energy consumption before the war, but rose to more than 50% by 1944. Ranki states that the Battle of Stalingrad interdicted some shipments of oil, presumably shipments up the Volga River from Astrakhan, but provides no figures.

Transportation in the USSR

Railroad Freight Traffic 1940

Commodity	Ton-Kilometers	Average length of haul	Metric tons originated
Commodity	(billions)	(Km)	(Millions)
Coal and coke	106.8	701	152.5
Petroleum	36.9	1,234	29.5
Ores	19.7	612	35.2
Iron and Steel	26.2	966	27.1
Mineral building materials	28.2	253	111.7
Timber	43.6	1,019	42.8
Grain	32.8	736	44.6
Firewood	5.8	252	23.1
Other Freight	115.4	917	126.1
Total	415.0	700	592.6

River Freight Traffic 1940

Commodity	Ton-Kilometers	Average length of haul	Metric tons originated
Commodity	(billions)	(Km)	(Millions)
Timber in boats	2.82	378	7.46
Timber in rafts	11.65	356	32.72
Total timber	14.47	360	40.18
Petroleum	12.07	1259	9.59
Grain	2.19	424	5.17
Salt	1.76	1224	1.44
Mineral building materials	1.44	193	7.46
Coal	1.15	540	2.13
Other	2.72	392	6.94
Total	35.80	491	72.91

Percentage of Intrasea Tons Originated 1940

Petroleum	65.0
Timber	5.6
Coal	4.9
Ores	4.7
Mineral building material	2.3
Iron and Steel	0.9
Other	16.6

Source:

Soviet Transportation Policy by Holland Hunter, 1957

Commentary:

In 1940 traffic on the Caspian Sea accounted for 51% of total maritime tons originated and traffic on the Black and Azov seas was another 33.5%. Hunter also quotes a figure of 31,200,000 metric tons originated in 1940 though this figure is unreliable due to gaps in the records and that it includes shipments originating or terminating abroad, although it probably doesn't include freight carried in non-Soviet ships. This would mean that the Caspian Sea capacity was roughly 20 million tons in 1940 after deductions for foreign shipments.

Return to The Sinews of War.
Soviet Industrial Production 1940-1945.