The ves­sel “Surakhani”, owned by Azer­bai­jan Caspi­an Ship­ping Com­pa­ny (ASCO), played a big role in the his­to­ry of Azer­bai­jan’s oil trans­porta­tion by sea. The tanker “Surakhany” with a length of 123.5 meters and a dead­weight of 4696 tons belongs to the type of ves­sels “Engi­neer A. Pus­toshkin”, first launched in the Caspi­an Sea in 1957. Until recent­ly, the Surakhany tanker was used as an oil refin­ery sta­tion for the Ship­ping Com­pa­ny. In 2017, it was decid­ed to turn the ship into a muse­um. To turn the tanker into a muse­um, a major over­haul was car­ried out on the ship and recon­struc­tion work was car­ried out. For this pur­pose, the human and tech­ni­cal resources of the ASCO Bibi-Hey­­bat Ship­yard and Khaz­ar LLC were mobi­lized. More than 2,000 ship repair work­ers were involved in the repair and recon­struc­tion of the hull and oth­er parts of the ship. The expe­ri­ence of coun­tries such as Great Britain, the Nether­lands and Turkey, which have ancient ship­ping tra­di­tions, was also used in cre­at­ing the muse­um. In order for the muse­um ship to meet inter­na­tion­al stan­dards, coop­er­a­tion was built with more than 100 influ­en­tial for­eign and local com­pa­nies. Using the most mod­ern tech­no­log­i­cal equip­ment, var­i­ous inno­v­a­tive solu­tions are applied in the halls. In the muse­um, vis­i­tors will be able to get a clos­er look at the his­to­ry of the Caspi­an Sea, oil pro­duc­tion in the Absheron, the devel­op­ment of ship­ping, ships con­sid­ered one of the first in the world, sea giants, nav­i­ga­tion aids that are inte­gral attrib­ut­es of ship­ping, mar­itime hubs with a his­to­ry of about 5,000 years, as well as equip­ment used in the oper­a­tion of ships. The muse­um also has a restau­rant where you can taste both nation­al cui­sine and seafood.

The open­ing of the world’s first tanker muse­um in Baku will pro­vide local res­i­dents and the grow­ing num­ber of tourists with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get acquaint­ed with the his­to­ry of the Caspi­an Sea and ship­ping in our coun­try, and the hero­ic work of our brave sailors. The tanker-muse­um “Surakhani” will play the role of a bridge con­nect­ing the past and future of ship­ping in Azer­bai­jan, which has ancient mar­itime tra­di­tions.