Russia' cultural heritage of oil and gas industry

Cultural heritage equally values material and nonmaterial objects, which are witness of historical events and heroes of Russian oil and gas industry. It is also interesting the change in the use of oil -from healing balms and source of light to the essential product of modern man. The second part of the XX century is often called as an era of hydrocarbons, where oil and gas became crucial elements of world economy. Oil and gas are considered to be "political products" because current geostrategy often depends on a situation on a world oil and gas market. Today Russian oil and gas industry is one of the stable and dynamically developing sector of the country economy. The Western Siberian assets that were created during the second part of the XX century keep the leading position in the oil and gas sector. The experience of research and expositional work of the Museum of geology, oil and gas (2003-2013) demonstrates multiplicity of material and nonmaterial objects within cultural heritage of oil and gas industry. The article structures the museum's objects by types of sources of cultural valuables. The specific object having cultural value within oil and gas industry as a cultural heritage of the country is considered to be oil wells. They symbolize the history and uniqueness of rich oil reserves and places where oil and gas wells were constructed; extraction facilities that are still operating or that have been closed down, but still having technological and historical value. The establishment of the museum as a social institution reflects conscious will to preserve witnesses of history and cultural heritage: - for the generations that are living and will live in territory of oil and gas equations; the country population those lives directly or indirectly have been influenced by processes in oil and gas industry ; - for the state to which oil and gas industry occupies the leading and predetermined role in economy. It is necessary to pinpoint two main time periods for identifying cultural valuables in heritage of oil and gas industry in Russian Federation: - identification and organization of cultural valuables during the period before 1990s, that could be considered as a completed historical process; - identification and organization of cultural valuables on the eve of XX and XXI centuries, that belong to the current historical processes. Both periods have particularities in the process of collecting and organization of objects: for the first period it is necessary to find a symbol objects that are results of historical events; for the second period it is necessary to isolate the object from numerous objects of daily life that could be considered of having cultural value. The museum aims to identify and preserve cultural valuables of oil and gas industry to form cultural heritage of this sector.

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