Bridges of Power and Play: Geopolitics of Oil Rock and New Babylonian Futures

While Constant Nieuwenhuys envisioned New Babylon as a creative utopia free from labor, Stalin’s giant spider, sprawling across the Caspian Sea, symbolized a different vision: one of labor, industry, and state control. Constructed in 1949 off the coast of Baku, Neft Dashlari (Oil Rock), the first offshore oil platform, became a vast, self-sustaining industrial city built on stilts. Housing around 5,000 workers, it expanded throughout the Cold War to include 256 oil wells and 2,000 drilling platforms, playing a crucial role in Soviet energy security and geopolitical strategy.
This paper explores the construction and operation of Neft Dashlari as a tool of state control, revealing its industrial, social, and geopolitical significance. For the Soviet Union, oil was not only an economic asset but a strategic resource to outpace the capitalist West. Neft Dashlari became both a symbol of Soviet power and a key fuel source for the Red Army. Designed to tap into the Caspian Sea's vast reserves, the platform was an innovative solution to underwater oil extraction, built on sunken boats and employing cluster drilling mechanisms.
The paper delves into the social and environmental dynamics of Neft Dashlari within the broader context of Cold War geopolitics. It highlights the industrial workforce that sustained it, the harsh living conditions of workers, and the environmental threats posed by oil extraction in the Caspian Sea. The drilling operations led to spills, pollution, and habitat destruction, particularly endangering the Caspian sturgeon, the primary source of caviar. The platform’s architecture and infrastructure transformed the sea, intensifying human impact and ecological manipulation.
By examining Neft Dashlari through the lens of technological innovation and state power, this paper explores how industrial infrastructures like oil platforms shape, and are shaped by, the political and ecological landscapes in which they operate. In contrast to the fluidity and creative joys imagined by Nieuwenhuys’ New Babylon, Neft Dashlari embodies a world of industrial labor, resource extraction, and state control, marked by rigid structures and geopolitical competition. Ultimately, the paper argues that Neft Dashlari represents a critical intersection of labor, technology, and environment, highlighting the tension between human agency, ecological impact, and Cold War geopolitics.