Mikhail Sidorenko
Overview
Photos
1914–1987
Dedicated to centenary of birth of Mikhail Sidorenko, originator and developer of the Russian gas industry, First Deputy Minister of the USSR Gas Industry.
Mikhail Sidorenko was born in Baku on November 18, 1914. Seeking a better fate, his father moved to the Apsheron lands from Poltava. He worked as a railway service operator at the Transcaucasian Railway. There were three children in their family and despite the hardships all three of them received higher education.
Mikhail Sidorenko
In 1937 Mikhail Sidorenko graduated from Azerbaijan Oil Institute, majoring in Oil and Gas Field Development. He started working in the field already as a student, first being a site supervisor and then Deputy Head of the trust.
In 1938 due to the need to develop the fields of the Second Baku (the Volga-Urals Oil & Gas Region) he was sent to the Syzranneft trust. Thus, at the age of 24 Mikhail Sidorenko became Chief Engineer of a large company.
There he proved out to be an outstanding production manager, and just one month prior to the War the young talented engineer was transferred to work in Moscow. .
In 1941 he was appointed Head of the Production Division of the Main Geology Department, People's Commissariat for Oil (Narkomneft). At the beginning of the War Mikhail Sidorenko had applied several times for being sent to the front, but he was set a task to urgently prospect new oil fields.
Mikhail Sidorenko, student of Azizbekov Azerbaijan Industrial Institute
In 1942 he was sent to Kazakhstan to work as the Chief Engineer of the West Siberian Geological Trust.
In 1943 he was appointed Chief Engineer of Molotovneftekombinat and later on – Head of the Molotovneft association in Molotov (presently Perm).
Mikhail Sidorenko with his wife Antonina and daughter Inna, Syzran, 1939
In 1947 he was put in charge of Glavvostokneftedobycha with a mission to set up the development of oil fields discovered in the wartime in the Mid-Volga Region, in Tatary and Bashkiria. In 1951 he became Head of Glavzapadneftedobycha.
In 1954 in the position of Deputy Oil Industry Minister, Mikhail Sidorenko headed Glavneftegaz, which in 1956 became the basis for creating the Main Directorate of the Gas Industry under the USSR Council of Ministers (Glavgaz of the USSR, later – Gosgazprom, Mingazprom of the USSR). Since that time for about thirty years he had worked only in the gas industry, out of which twenty three years he had been First Deputy Head of the industry.
In 1957 Mikhail Sidorenko was appointed Chairman of the Gas Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
Mikhail Sidorenko played a major part in working out and implementing the main aspects of the gas industry development. Proposing the long-term projects significant for the industry, he assumed the burden of responsibility for their development and execution. He supervised pre-development and commissioning of major fields of North Caucasus and the Krasnodar Territory, the Shebelinskoye field in Ukraine, Gazlinskoye – in Uzbekistan, Shatlykskoye – in Turkmenia, Vuktylskoye – in the Komi Republic, as well as the Orenburgskoye, Medvezhye, Vyngapurovskoye, Urengoyskoye fields and many others.
Mikhail Sidorenko was directly involved in creating a branched network of gas trunklines – from constructing the first ones in the Russian gas industry, such as North Caucasus – Center, Bukhara – Urals, Central Asia – Center, Soyuz, Vuktyl – Ukhta – Torzhok, to the West Siberia – Center high-capacity branched gas pipeline system and the Urengoy – Pomary – Uzhgorod transcontinental gas trunkline.
Mikhail Sidorenko played a major part in making a decision strategically important for the gas industry concerning the use of centrifugal gas superchargers with gas turbine and electric drives at compressor stations. Under his supervision the country’s institutes started developing powerful gas compressor units for compressor stations, new equipment was mastered and operated, personnel was trained.
Central Asia – Center gas pipeline construction. On-site briefing, 1965
He was an originator of Russia’s Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS) and an author of a concept to regulate gasification of the national economy on the basis of underground gas storage system.
Back in 1960, Mikhail Sidorenko wrote, “Such a gas transmission system combined with underground storages will provide for a sharp increase in the flexibility of distributing and delivering huge gas volumes from major industrial areas to different economic regions of the country, as well as for laying the foundation for constructing the Unified Gas Transmission Network in the next 10 to 15 years.”
By late 1960’s the Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS) of Russia had been created. During the period of the UGSS creation, Mikhail Sidorenko’s home literally turned into the ‘frontline headquarters’ where scientists, engineers, compressor operators, constructors, drillers, geologists, machine builders, company executives phoned.
Mikhail Sidorenko led the formulation of theoretical basics for underground gas storage (UGS) system and for a period of 25 years he was putting them into practice by managing the construction of the first UGS facilities – Kaluzhskoye and Shchelkovskoye. He was the main ideologist of UGS facilities construction in abandoned gas fields as well as aquifers, which was new to the global UGS practice. He took part in creating the world’s largest Kasimovskoye UGS facility in an aquifer. In 1975 he passed his PhD defense on Increasing Reliability of Gas Supply. He also published a series of research papers dedicated to underground gas storing.
Conversation of experts. Messoyakhskoye gas field, September 1968
Mikhail Sidorenko was constantly on business trips, he knew the capacity of every well, every unit, was aware of how matters stood firsthand. He was well known onsite. Upon his initiative an independent process communications & automation system was set up.
With experts, testing automated control system of expansion turbines. Shebelinka, February 1978
Over a half a century Mikhail Sidorenko had served for the oil & gas industry, about thirty years he dedicated to the gas sector, out of which 23 years he was First Deputy Minister.
Since 1979 Mr. Sidorenko had been Senior Research Associate of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1983 his encyclopedic knowledge and practical experience of work at the Ministry Administration were sought for, and he was invited to take the office of the Head of the specially set up Underground Gas Storage Division of the USSR Gas Industry Ministry.
In 1985 he retired completely.
On March 4, 1987 he passed away.
Epilogue
Mikhail Sidorenko was an originator of the Russian gas industry and its evolvement into a separate sector of the national economy. The responsibilities of Mikhail Sidorenko were quite diverse. He was in charge of design, construction and operation of gas production and transmission companies; creation of new research institutes as well as R&D activities in the gas industry; development and introduction of new equipment; mapping out long-term plans for gas production, transmission and use in the country. His knowledge and experience were so vast, versatile and deep that he was called ‘the Chief Engineer of the gas industry’.
Mikhail Sidorenko belonged to the glorious generation of gas workers, who selflessly shaped up the gas industry, did their best without many words. Mikhail Sidorenko worked his heart out and demanded that others should work with full dedication, he couldn’t stand carelessness and incompetence. He would always say that gas had to be treated with respect, that there were no little things in the gas industry.
Awards and titles:
- Order of Lenin.
- Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor.
- Order of the Badge of Honor.
- Order of the October Revolution.
- Medal for Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War 1941 to 1945.
- Medal for Distinguished Labor.
- Medal for Labor Valor.
- Title of the Honored Worker of the RSFSR Oil and Gas Industry.
Recollections of colleagues, followers and friends of Mikhail Sidorenko
Yury Batalin, Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers
“Today we can state with certainty that for over twenty years Mikhail Sidorenko was the linchpin of the USSR gas industry activities. The bulk of production operations closed on him. He was the creator of the gas industry technological culture and discipline. From this point of view Mikhail Sidorenko’s role in the history of the Russian gas industry can hardly be overestimated.”
Grant Margulov, First Deputy Minister of the USSR gas industry
“He was fond of specific proposals and specific actions and made every effort for these actions to reach the set goals. Mikhail Sidorenko was personally acquainted with many people and their professional qualities and always kept those he could count on near him. It is an excellent quality of a leader, who stood at the origins of the national gas industry and witnessed its triumph. His life and career are exemplary.”
Vladimir Khalatin, Head of the Central Dispatch Directorate of the Unified Gas Supply System of the USSR Gas Industry Ministry
“Privately many of us – gas industry workers – used to call him ‘the Ministry’s Chief Engineer’. Heads of all structural units – project engineers, scientists, constructors, operators, machine builders, economists, process engineers – sought his advice, explanations, problem solutions, and he always found time to sift every question to the bottom and answer it or make a necessary decision.
For me Mr. Sidorenko will forever remain a Professional and a Person with a capital P.”
Vladimir Kurchenkov, Head of the Gas Transportation and Supply Directorate
“At all the stages of the gas industry development Mikhail Sidorenko was always concerned about securing high economic efficiency of the constructed gas pipelines in terms of payback periods… Mr. Sidorenko played a major part in creating Russia’s Unified Gas Supply System…
Giving a mind’s eye to everything Mikhail Sidorenko gave his spirit and heart to and had a hand in as well as to all the things he managed to do, we’ll see an image of a creator, a man of indefatigable zeal who fully dedicated himself to establishing and advancing the Russian gas industry.
There is a position of a Chief Engineer in every gas transmission company. Mikhail Sidorenko can justly be referred to as the Chief Engineer of the whole gas industry. The industry he fully contributed his glorious and creative life to.”
Alexander Kozachenko, Director General of Mostransgaz Association
“Mikhail Sidorenko was a strict but a very competent professional. He was respected by everyone – operators, constructors, assemblers. They always waited for him to come and carefully prepared for his visits. Many people feared him, but he never got angry for no reason, never humiliated anyone. Mr. Sidorenko was a good listener, he didn’t speak much but always spoke sense. He didn’t waste promises, but he would always honor his word. That is how I photographed him in my mind, and I proudly and gratefully consider Mikhail Sidorenko to be one of my first tutors in the gas industry.”
Samuil Kraizelman, Head of the Main Production and Distribution Directorate of the USSR Oil and Gas Industry Construction Ministry
“He was a man you could learn a lot from and who readily learned from others. He was a man absolutely destined for the glorious cause of gas. I thank my lucky stars for our acquaintance, friendship and joint work.”
Pyotr Sviridov, compressor operator
“Mr. Sidorenko was bound up in the industry, in concerns of its people. He understood well that the strength of the gas industry was in its ordinary workers, who considered the gas cause to be their main cause. Such people could be entrusted with solving any issues. Such people, in their turn, trusted such leaders as Mikhail Sidorenko.”
Based on the books by Valentin Runov “Golden Reserves of the Gas Industry”, “Mikhail Sidorenko”. Special thanks to Inna Konstantinova (Mikhail Sidorenko’s daughter) for the assistance with the material compilation.