The Petroleum Production Company Nobel Brothers, Limited, or Branobel, was an oil company set up by Ludvig Nobel and Baron Peter von Bilderling. It operated mainly in Baku, Azerbaijan, but also in Cheleken, Turkmenistan.
Originally established by Robert Nobel and the investments of barons Peter von Bilderling and Standertskjöld as a distillery in 1876, it became, during the late-19th century, one of the largest oil-companies in the world.
Robert Nobel already had experience of kerosene from the lamp and lamp oil warehouse Aurora in Finland. In Baku he would once again come into contact with oil. The photo shows samples of kerosene being taken in Baku.
Share of the Russian General Oil Corporation, issued 28. April 1918
The Nobels' oil facilities in Baku
Ludwig Nobel's Mechanical Workshop in Petersburg, Branobels board downstairs
Ludvig Immanuel Nobel was a Swedish-Russian engineer, a noted businessman and a humanitarian. One of the most prominent members of the Nobel family, he was the son of Immanuel Nobel and Andriette Nobel, and the older brother of Alfred Nobel. With his brother Robert, he operated Branobel, an oil company in Baku which at one point produced 50% of the world's oil.
Ludvig Nobel
A Cartridge Display Board of the Nobel Industries, demonstrating the manufacture of a 5/8-inch unlined cartridge.