Alexander Mantashev - Oil Tycoon

Oil Tycoon

This was the epoch of the world oil trade. The underground black liquid promised entrepreneurs incredible profits and opened ambitious prospects. The only requirements were a large investment and the ability to run the business. These Mantashev had. His chief accountant recalled that not a single document went into effect without Alexander's resolution, "Asttsov" ("with God" in Armenian). Mantashev, not being afraid of high risk investments, bought (together with another Armenian colleague, Michael Aramyants) unprofitable oil wells in Baku that very soon became profitable. In 1894 he created a tentative association along with the other major oil interests in Russia, the Nobels and the Rothschilds, in order to cooperate in the marketing of petroleum products within certain geographical areas. This was in response to Standard Oil's aggressive marketing policy. In 1896, during a trip to Egypt, Mantashev met Calouste Gulbenkian who was fleeing the Ottoman Empire with his family as a result of the Hamidian massacres. Mantashev introduced Gulbenkian to the right circles in Cairo, including Sir Evelyn Baring. For refining oil, Mantashev built a kerosene plant in Baku, as well as a lubricant plant and a marine refinery for pumping oil and fuel to vessels. His company owned a factory for the fabrication of canisters for the packaging and storage of oil in Batumi, a mechanical workshop in Zabrat, an oil pumping station in Odessa, and even one hundred freight cars circulating in the southwestern railways of Russia. (The young Joseph Stalin organized strikes in Mantashev's Batumi factory and participated in street demonstrations in 1902.) In England Mantashev bought two tankers, which supplied oil to India, China, Japan and the Mediterranean countries. In 1899 he created the trading house "A.I. Mantashev and Co.", opening representative offices and warehouses in the major cities of Europe and Asia: Smyrna, Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Alexandria, Cairo, Port Said, Damascus, Paris, London, Bombay and Shanghai. Mantashev became a shareholder in a number of oil companies, among them the Nobel Brothers. 51.3% of the total stock of oil and 66.8% of the oil content in the Caspian Sea was centered around the firm. In 1904, it was the third largest oil company in Baku, next to only the Nobel Brothers and the Caspian Sea Society of the Rothschild brothers.

Once while riding on a train from Vienna to Paris, Mantashev was accompanied by a silent passenger in the same car. Mantashev failed in all his attempts to communicate with the passenger. Only when it came to the subject of Baku oil did the silent passenger become talkative. During their discussion he had asked several professional questions regarding oil and had mentioned that the only person he had heard of in Baku was Alexander Mantashev. Mantashev smiled and introduced himself. The conversation stalled thereafter. In Paris, they shook hands and parted. A few days later Mantashev was invited to a cocktail party by Britain's Baron Rothschild. It became clear that the Baron had been the silent passenger on the train because the personal invitation contained several lines regarding their encounter on the train.

Mantashev funded the Baku-Batumi pipeline which was launched in 1907, becoming the world's longest pipeline, 835 kilometers long. From 1899 to 1909, his company by volume of fixed capital (22 million rubles) was the largest in Russian industry. It is said that before buying oil wells Mantashev personally examined them. He knew that a rich deposit may suddenly dry up, and vice versa: a well seemingly lacking in prospects could end up as a rich fountain. Surrounded by a group of geologists and petroleum engineers, he visited the sites asking countless questions, carefully studying land-color, softness etc.; he even smelled the land. Mantashev always inquired into the status of the neighbouring sites, often seemingly choosing them at random and saying : "It's here, start digging." No one could understand what it was that made him choose that particular spot. But his decision was always final. The great paradox was that when drilling commenced, an oil fountain was almost always discovered. individual grand child Nana Mantashev.