Floating city on the world's largest lake

Azerbaijan The city of Neft Daşları (meaning Oil Rock) spreads out like rusty floating tentacles on the surface of the Caspian Sea, far from the nearest edge of land.

The city of Neft Daşları is located on the Caspian Sea off the coast of Baku, Azerbaijan. Photo: Reza

Neft Daşları is a network of oil wells and production facilities connected by kilometers of bridges in the middle of the Caspian Sea, the world's largest lake. It is located about 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku and about a six-hour boat ride from the mainland. Neft Daşları is the world's oldest offshore oil rig, according to the Guinness Book of Records. At its peak, the city was home to more than 5,000 residents, according to CNN .

However, in recent decades, Neft Daşları’s population has dwindled, with many areas falling into disrepair and sinking into the sea. Yet the city still functions as a symbol of Azerbaijan’s long history of oil exploration in the Caspian, a fossil fuel-rich lake that is shrinking due to the climate crisis.

The history of Neft Daşları dates back to the Soviet era. In the late 1940s, oil workers gathered on a small island and built drilling rigs and small houses to live in. The first exploratory well was drilled in 1949 and struck oil. The first tanker came ashore in 1951 and the construction of the city began. Neft Daşları gradually expanded, consisting of iron piles driven into the sea and lying a few meters above sea level as if floating. In fact, the city was made up of nearly 2,000 oil wells and about 320 production facilities, connected by more than 160 km of bridges and nearly 97 km of oil and gas pipelines.

Seven decommissioned ships were brought to the area and sunk. The wrecks form an artificial bay that protects the city from wind and waves, although Neft Daşları remains vulnerable to storms and rough seas. “Some of the ships are visible from the water where they were sunk,” said Mirvari Gahramanli, director of the Azerbaijan Oil Workers’ Rights Organization.

Over the next few decades, Neft Daşları provided housing for workers, a bakery, a theater that could seat hundreds of people, shops, medical facilities, a soccer field, and a helipad. The city even had trees and a park on its steel structures. Some in Azerbaijan called it the “eighth wonder of the world” or “the island of seven ships.” The city was the center of oil production in the Caspian Sea and produced nearly 180 million tons of oil in its 75 years of existence, according to Azerbaijan’s SOCAR oil company, which owns and operates Neft Daşları. At its peak in 1967, Neft Daşları produced a record 7.6 million tons of oil.

But the city's importance has waned in recent years as larger oil fields have been developed and oil prices have fluctuated. Production has fallen to less than 3,000 tons per day (roughly 1 million tons per year), according to SOCAR's January figures. Production at Neft Daşları accounts for only a small portion of Azerbaijan's oil production, mostly for the domestic market. At the same time, the city's population has dwindled to about 3,000, with workers often working 15-day shifts at sea and 15-day shifts back home on the mainland. Parts of the city are crumbling under the influence of storms in the Caspian Sea. In 2008, several major bridges collapsed.

Authorities have also received numerous reports of oil spills polluting Neft Daşları, with untreated sewage being dumped into the Caspian Sea. The future of the giant city on water once the oil runs out has long been a matter of debate. Some have suggested that Neft Daşları could become a tourist attraction or museum, as the city is a cradle of offshore oil exploration and part of Azerbaijan’s heritage.