Thus, the investigation of this question leads to the conclusion that deliveries of high-octane gasoline and octane-boosting additives from the US were indisputably important for supporting airborne combat operations by the Soviet Armed Forces, as well as effective production operations at domestic aircraft plants and other aviation organizations.
America’s other contributions should not be overlooked. From April 1943-May 1945, US deliveries also included: 294,415 tons of automotive gasoline, 18,595 tons of kerosene, 316,650 tons of residual oil, 123,100 tons of lubricants, 6,359 tons of paraffin, 5,278 tons of chemical additives, and 1,100 tons of other products.
It should be stressed that the fuel component of Lend-Lease, in addition to petroleum products, also included US deliveries to the USSR of equipment for four complete refineries, as well as drilling rigs and other oilfield equipment, casing pipe and flow tubing, portable knockdown pipelines, monitoring and measuring devices, tankers, railroad tank cars, fueling trucks, and much more.
Officially, Lend-Lease deliveries to the USSR were suspended May 12, 1945, and from that date until the Red Army’s crossing of the Manchurian border in the Far East, cargo delivery was done under a “special October 17 program” and a so-called “Molotov-Mikoyan list” supplemental to that. These agreements set maximum volumes of military and civilian materials that would be allocated by the US and Great Britain to the Soviet Union.
The Pipeline Agreement, signed October 15, 1945, continued the Lend-Lease protocols and was very important to the devastated Soviet economy. This treaty, worth $222 million, also had a substantial effect on the postwar development of the Soviet oil and gas industry.
On the whole, American, British, and Canadian deliveries of petroleum products, refining and oilfield equipment, pipe, and other materials as part of the overall Lend-Lease program substantially affected the supply of fuel to Soviet armed forces, and helped modernize the Soviet oil production and refining industries and develop the nation’s pipeline system.
In the conclusion of his book Lend-Lease: Weapon for Victory, published in 1944, American General Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., head of the Office of Lend-Lease Administration, wrote: “Cooperation through Lend-Lease as it is today was destined, of course, to end one day, but we know that the principles of mutual aid and mutual benefit that form the basis of the Lend-Lease Act must continue to operate. Now as never before, freedom-loving peoples are united in their aims and actions. In this unity, we can find strength to establish peace in a world where everyone will be guaranteed freedom and equal opportunity.”
Lend-Lease was a unique phenomenon in the recent history of relations among the USSR, US, Great Britain, and Canada. Under the very difficult conditions of the Second World War, the Allies managed to reach a mutual understanding and successfully used an effective mechanism of international economic relations to achieve total victory for the anti-Hitler coalition over Nazi Germany.
The Contribution of Soviet Oilmen and Scientists to the Victory
The acute shortage of petroleum products during the war in the Soviet rear explains the USSR’s elaborate campaign to conserve liquid fuel. It included a transition to gas and solid fuel, acceleration of synthetic liquid fuel production, and maximized use of additives—benzene, synol, and other liquid products of thermal processing. Previously, gas fuel had been obtained from oil production waste only as a byproduct of crude oil production. During the war, fields producing solely natural gas in the area of Buguruslan and Saratov came online. The gas was used primarily to fuel industrial enterprises and power plants. A number of long gas pipelines (Yelshanka–Saratov, Voyvot–Ukhta, etc.) were built during the war to supply gas fuel to industrial enterprises.
Soviet petroleum scientists, who participated in the development of oil and gas fields and in the introduction of advanced technologies and new oilfield equipment, also made a major contribution to the overall victory over the enemy. On June 3, 1942, a special commission was formed to mobilize the resources of the Volga and Kama River Valleys. Its oil section was headed by academician Sergey Nametkin, and the People’s Commissariat for the Oil Industry was actively represented by First Deputy People’s Commissar Nikolay Baybakov. The geologists of the Moscow Petroleum Institute, along with their colleagues from the All-Union Scientific Research Geologic Exploration Institute, the Institute of Petroleum, and other institutions of the Academy of Sciences, performed extensive geologic studies of oil prospects in the Volga-Urals region. Their research on oil and gas percolation in a porous medium was of tremendous importance for the selection of oilfield development methods. The following well-known petroleum geologists took active part in the analysis of materials from geologic exploratory expeditions in the Volga-Urals region: Academicians D. Nalivkin, N. Shatsky, and S. Mironov; Corresponding Members of the Academy of Sciences S. Fëdorov, M. Mirchink, K. Chepikov, and V. Nalivkin; and geologists A. Chernov, V. Fëdorov, K. Timirgazin, A. Trofimuk, A. Blokhin, A. Bogdanov, and M. Barentsov.
The Volga-Urals region, nicknamed the “Second Baku,” became a proving ground for testing and introducing new methods of oil production and refining. For example, during the war, turbodrilling was successfully introduced in Bashkiria and in the Samara and Perm regions. The method increased drilling speeds and lengthened equipment life. In the Bashkir ASSR, top crews achieved rates of 2,625 feet per rig per month, versus the usual 787 feet. Large modular drilling derricks also began to be used at this time, accelerating the drilling of oil fields in the Volga-Urals region. In 1943 and 1944, workers at the Dossor and Maqat fields in the Emba District began actively waterflooding oil formations to enhance oil production. At Ishimbayevo, hole bottoms were treated with hydrochloric acid and “shots” were detonated to stimulate oil production.
The productive collaboration of scientists and engineers soon resulted in milestone events. On December 31, 1942, the Krasnokamsk office of turbodrilling at Molotovneftekombinat [“Molotov Petroleum Integrated Works”] was the first in the world to begin turbodrilling an experimental directional well. Eventually, 208 slant wells were drilled in this manner at the Krasnokamsk oil field.
On July 25, 1943, Shugurovo Well 1 (Verey-Namurian field) in the Tatar ASSR yielded a commercial inflow of oil, which gave a powerful new impetus to further development of the promising oil area. In September 1943, exploratory Well 5 at Kinzebulatovo field in Bashkiria was the first oil gusher.
In March 1944, the USSR CPC adopted a resolution, “On the Development of Exploration and Preparation for Construction of an Oil Field at Shugurovo Field, Tatar ASSR.” In turn, People’s Commissar Ivan Sedin immediately followed up this important government decision by signing an order by the same title.
Triumphant reports from the Volga oilmen soon followed. On June 9, 1944, at Yablonevoy Gorge in the Kuybyshev Region, the first flowing Devonian Well 41 yielded 234 tons of oil per day. On September 26, 1944, at Tuymaza, on the slopes of the Narashtau Range, a crew led by foreman A. T. Tripolsky drilled Well 100, which became a gusher flowing at more than 220 tons of Devonian oil per day.
Oil workers who developed the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province made their own substantial contribution to the achievement of victory over the enemy. Thus, oil production in Ukhta District increased considerably during the war and the gas industry was born. From 1941 to 1945, 635,400 tons of crude and 53 billion cubic feet of natural gas were produced, and the first gas field went into production in the Verkhne-Izhma District near the village of Krutoy, 56 miles from Ukhta. In 1942, more than 7.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas was refined to soot, which was badly needed by defense plants for rubber production, as it was used as a filler to reinforce rubber mixes. Geologists played their part as well in developing the resources of this region. In October 1943, they discovered the Voyvozh gas field, and in June 1945, they found the Nibel gas field (the country’s biggest, with a daily flow of 21 million cubic feet of gas).