A commemorative meeting dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the birth of Academician A.A. Trofimuk was held at the building of IGPT

On August 16, at the memorial plaque, the meeting attendees cherished the memory of Andrei Alekseevich Trofimuk, a graduate of Kazan University, an outstanding person, citizen, geologist, one of the discoverers of Bashkir oil and oil in Western and Eastern Siberia.

The meeting was opened by Danis Nurgaliev, Vice-Rector for Oil and Gas Technologies, Environmental Management and Geosciences, Director of the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies of the Kazan Federal University. He laid flowers at the Trofimuk memorial plaque and told those who came to the event about this unique person.

“Trofimuk is one of the outstanding graduates of the Geological Faculty, now the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies,” says Danis Karlovich. “Today is 110th anniversary of his birth, and we are holding this memorable meeting at the memorial plaque, which was installed on the building of the Institute in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of the scientist. Andrei Alekseevich is an absolutely outstanding person: he is a scientist, an organizer, and a real patriot. A few strokes from his biography clearly demonstrate this.

In 1943, he already worked in Bashkortostan for about 10 years after graduating from Kazan University in 1933. By that time, he was appointed chief geologist of the Bashneft association.

There was a war, the country needed oil. This was aggravated by the fact that the German army reached the North Caucasus and cut off the path to Azerbaijani oil. Imagine that the country could be left without fuel at all!
Intensive prospecting began in several regions of the country, in Bashkiria, where oil production was already underway, geologists, including Trofimuk, assumed the possibility of discovering large oilfields.

By his decision, drilling of wells began in the Karlinsko-Kinzebulatovskaya zone of brachyanticlinal folds. When the first wells showed the absence of reservoir rocks, many specialists began to insist on stopping the works and not waste precious time on drilling another well.  But Trofimuk insisted on drilling this well. It can be assumed what was the threat to Trofimuk if the well was dry! But the well gave a powerful fountain – 130 tons per day!

For this feat, Andrei Alekseevich Trofimuk was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, he received the Star of the Hero and the Order of Lenin in a few months, at the beginning of 1944. In the same year, the Tuymazinskoye field was discovered in the Devonian sediments, which became one of the most important sources of oil for the country’s motor fuel.

Andrey Trifimuk was one of the founders of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences and Academic Town, he founded the Institute of Oil and Gas Geology and Geophysics and headed it for 30 years.  Moreover, he was one of the discoverers of gas hydrates in Siberia!

Another stroke of his biography reveals him as a real Citizen and Patriot. When in 1998 he was awarded the order by the decree of Boris Yeltsin, Academician Trofimuk refused to accept it as a sign of disagreement with the state policy in relation to science and to the citizens of Russia in general.

Then the participants of the meeting took pictures near the memorial table and continued the discussion on the topic of Trofimuk’s achievements and their significance for science.

“A.A. Trofimuk made a huge contribution to the development of the oil and gas industry in Russia, – says Ildus Chukmarov, Deputy Director of IGPT for Marketing, Director of the Director of Center for Advanced Training, Quality Management and Marketing (CdoGEO). “Thanks to him, “million-plus” wells were discovered, and active oil production from the Devonian deposits began. It was he who defended the necessity to drill the 100th well, as a result of which on September 26, 1944, a gusher of oil from the Tuimazinskoye field was received. Today our task is to educate the modern generation of geologists on the example of such outstanding scientists as A.A. Trofimuk. It is gratifying to note that CdoGEO of IGPT KFU continues the tradition of Geological faculty in cooperation (now the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies) and interacts with the subdivisions of Bashneft on personnel development issues. Every year hundreds of specialists and managers undergo professional retraining and advanced training at CdoGEO IGPT KFU.

“Unfortunately, I was not familiar with this outstanding scientist,” says Professor of the Department of Geophysics and Geoinformation Technologies Zakhar Slepak. “There are few such talented people today. He was distinguished from other geologists by his dedication to science and true passion for his work.”

Kazan Federal University proudly cherish the memory of the outstanding graduate. On May 26, 2000, the Department of Oil and Gas Geology was assigned the name of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.A. Trofimuk.

In 2020, Kazan Federal University won a grant for the establishment of a world-class scientific center “Rational development of liquid hydrocarbon reserves of the planet” in the direction of “Environmentally friendly resource-saving energy, effective regional use of subsoil and biological resources” in cooperation with the Ufa State Petroleum Technical University, Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. On August 31, a presentation of WCRC and a round table dedicated to the 110th anniversary of Academician A.A. Trofimuk will be held within the framework of the Tatarstan Oil and Gas Chemical Forum.