“Father of Baku oil" - Polish engineer with great merits for the Azerbaijani oil and gas sector

Witold Zglenicki was a graduate of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at the Warsaw Main School and the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg. Initially, he worked as an engineer in Poland, but a significant part of his professional life was associated with Baku - he worked there from 1891 until his death.

W. Zglenicki was involved in modernizing methods of oil extraction and come up with the idea of ​​extracting it from the seabed. He developed not only the concept of a drilling platform, but also a number of inventions to facilitate drilling, e.g. a device for measuring the curvature of oil wells, and some technical solutions enabling drilling shafts faster and to greater depths. W. Zglenicki also dealt with determining the abundance of hydrocarbon resources in the territory of today's Azerbaijan and under the bottom of the Caspian Sea. He can be called the "father of Baku oil" because his geological activities and inventions largely contributed to the development of the oil industry in this city.

W. Zglenicki's social activities are also worth commemorating. He was involved i.a. in the construction of waterworks in Baku and co-financing the construction of the first Roman Catholic church in this city (posthumously - in an inheritance bequest). In his will, W. Zglenicki left the income from his oil fields to the development of science and charity. The implementation of the will's provisions was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. After the 1917 revolution in Russia, the foundation that executed W. Zglenicki's will was deprived of the rights to exploit the oil-bearing areas assigned to it (the expropriation took place without compensation).

W. Zglenicki died in Azerbaijan, but his body was transported to Poland where he was buried in the cemetery in Wola Kiełpińska. There is currently neither a monument nor a street in Baku commemorating this great Pole and a man of great merits to the Azerbaijani oil and gas sector.