Distribution

A tunnel had to be built through the Suram Pass to make it easier for the heavy tank wagons to go through the Caucasus Mountains. It is unclear exactly how the tunnel was built, but Alfred Nobel’s dynamite, for which Carl Nobel was an agent, may have been used.

Branobel created and developed an integrated distribution system for its products, from the refineries via railway and tankers to depots and the retail trade. New technology was developed to find markets for residual products, as were fixed routines for deliveries and payments.

The Nobel brothers revolutionise Russian oil management

When Robert Nobel realised the possibilities of oil extraction in Baku on the Caspian Sea, oil management was very primitive. The oil was scooped out of the wells by hand and transported in wooden barrels on carts pulled by donkeys. The Nobel brothers started to build pumps, pipelines, depots and railway tracks. Ludvig Nobel himself constructed the world's first modern tanker. The effect of this was a total industrial transformation of the oil industry.

Nobel spies on his competitor, Rockefeller

When Robert Nobel realised the possibilities of oil extraction in Baku on the Caspian Sea, oil management was very primitive. The oil was scooped out of the wells by hand and transported in wooden barrels on carts pulled by donkeys. So, in 1879, Robert Nobel sends his colleague, Törnqvist, to the USA to obtain information about modern pipelaying at his competitor, Rockefeller's, plants in Pennsylvania.

Ludvig Nobel builds the world’s first modern tanker

The transport of oil on the waterways from Baku to the market in Europe required fresh ideas. With his experiences of building tankers for the Russian navy, Ludvig Nobel became the first person to design and order a tanker built of steel. In 1877, an order was placed at Motala works' shipyards in Norrköping. The vessel was named Zoroaster, after the Iranian philosopher, Zarathustra, whose theses were very popular among Europeans of the time.

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