MAJOR STEPS IN GAZOLINA SA HISTORY

 

 

Legal name: Gazolina Spółka Akcyjna  or  Gazolina SA

Headquarter: ul. Leona Sapiechy 3, (now Stepana Bandery) Lwow, Poland (now Ukraine)

Creation: 1920

Legal form: Joint stock company with employee shareholding.

 

1902 – 1906 : Marian Wieleżyński and Władysław Szaynok gain experience in the oil industry by promoting the recovery of gas from the extracted crude oil.

 

1907 : Big oil-well explosion at the "Oil City" mine, where ignition was triggered by a gas flare in a nearby oil well. That accident shocks the population.

 

1907 – 1912 : Marian Wieleżyński and Władysław Szaynok are campaigning to convince the administrative authorities against conservative oil circles in order to ban the combustion of separated gas from crude oil. Moreover, they discovered that the natural gas in Borysław is "wet", i.e. it contains significant amounts of light hydrocarbons (propane, butane, pentane, hexane or octane), which could be easily and cheaply liquefied by decompression, thus creating gasoline, its future flagship product . Already at the same time, they are constructing the first prototype gas degassing devices (installed on a horse cart!).

 

On May 20^th, 1912 : Drohobych County approved the construction of the first pipeline from the “Klaudiusz” mine to the center of Borysaw. The permit was granted to the Zakład Gazu Ziemnego “Inżynier Marian Wieleżyński Sp. z o.o.” which initially built a seven-hundred-meters pipeline. The shareholders of this company were three friends from the time of their studies at the Lwow Polytechnic: Marian Wieleżyński, Władysław Szaynok and Włodzimierz Kunowski.

 

1913 : Marian Wieleżyński and Władysław Szaynok founded a new company "Gaz Ziemny Sp. z o.o." and jointly decided to invest in the shares of the company "Zakład Gazu Ziemnego Inż. Marian Wieleżyński Sp. z o.o. ", which one finally built the first Gazolina factory in Europe (in production until 1930).

 

1915 : Gaz Ziemny Sp. z o.o. created a next new company “Gazolina Sp. z.o.o.”(Gazolina Limited) based in Tustanowice and built the second Gazolina plant.

 

1916 : Gazolina Sp. z o.o. headquarters moved to Lwow (where since 1912 was already its Technical Office). Kunowski leaves Lvov due to the nomination to the Provisional Council of State in Warsaw. He is replaced on the Gazolina Management Board by Prof. Gabriel Sokolnicki. In that time, Prof. Ignacy Mościcki came to Lwow, taking over the Chair of Chemical Technology at the Lwow Polytechnic. All four become the founders of the Science and Research Company "Metan", and Gazolina shares its headquarters in Lwow.

 

1920 : ”Zakład Gazu Ziemnego Inż. Marian Wieleżyński Sp. z o.o.” merged with Gazolina Sp. z o.o. to form “Gazolina Spółka Akcyjna ” with its headquarters in Lwow (Sapiechy 3).

 

Józef Tomicki became the first chairman of the supervisory board, and Ignacy Moscicki became the vice-president, while the executive committee was composed of Władysław Szaynok, Marian Wieleżyński and Gabriel Sokolnicki (all three were members of supervisory board as well). In the first year of operation, Gazolina Spółka Akcyjna produced 1,520 tons of crude oil, 3,524,000 m3 of natural gas and 593 tons of gazolina.

In accordance with the ideas and the will of Marian Wieleżyński, the creation of the Gazolina share company necessitated the invention of a single status defining the principles of employee shareholding. The first version was approved by the supervisory board in late 1920, and by the general meeting of shareholders on February 22, 1922.

It was established that permanent employees participating in the shareholding could therefore become co-owners of the company.

1921 : Land was purchased in Daszawa. The same year, M. Szaynok founded a company with the participation of the government and named it “Intercity Gas Pipelines”.

The first well “Piusudczyk I” was drilled, in which gas was found, which was brought to Stryj by a pipeline built by the “Intercity Gas Pipelines”.

 

1924 : A well with a pressure of 60 atmospheres was drilled and a pipeline to Drohobycz was built to transport the gas produced there.

 

1926 : Ignacy Moscicki was elected president of Poland.

 

The "Metan" company moved to Warsaw and was transformed into the Chemical Research Institute. Gazolina sold its shares of "Metan", and in its place Marian Wieleżyński founded the Gas Institute, also bought government shares in "Międzymiastowe Gazociągach" and merged both companies with Gazolina SA.

 

1928 : Wladislaw Szaynok dies.

The world’s first liquefied propane-butane gas cylinders (LPG) were produced and supplied and exported to Belgium, Syria and Palestine.

Stanisław Roman Jamróz, a member of Gazolina's management board, simultaneously takes over the management of the Mechanical Experimental Station of the Lwow Polytechnic.

 

1929 : a pipeline from Daszawa to Lwow was built; construction was carried out at a very rapid pace, so that the 82-kilometre-long installation could bring gas that illuminated the splendors of the 9th Eastern Fair in Lwow. After its completion, an attempt of takeover was made by an Austro-American capital, but thanks to the decision of the three largest shareholders, this was avoided. They were offering to pay a 1 PLN share at 9 dollars, making a PLN 1 worth PLN 45 (at exchange rate of 1 dollar for PLN 5).

Later, the central Gazolina Plant was established to replace six small Gazolina processing plants.

 

1931 : Pope Pius XI, while he was writing his famous encyclical “Quadragesimo anno”, invited Marian Wieleżyński as a consultant on salaried enterprises to present to him the principles he followed for the creation of the participation of his employees and workers of his company.

On October 8, 1931, a gas explosion delivered by Gazolina SA in Gdansk destroys a house and unfortunately kills several inhabitants. The factory manager Ignacy Wielezynski and the engineer Mogilnicki are arrested and tried, but ultimately cleared of all charges since a thorough investigation revealed manipulation by unidentified third parties of the building’s main valve using tools unknown to highly qualified Gazolina SA technicians.

 

1932 : Stanisław Jamróz,  Marian’s son-in-law, dies prematurely as a result of a medical error, his wife Jadwiga Jamróz takes over his Gazolina's duties.

 

1936 : Gazolina SA employees owned 46% of its capital!

By creating the status of Gazolina SA, Marian Wieleżyński realized the patriotic ideals of his youth, a Polish company, technical innovations, respect for the environment and improvements of worker's conditions by creating employee shareholding.

 

On the 1st of September 1939, the German savage attack of Poland created chaos in the Gazolina SA organization from which material assets were seized or shelled and human assets decimated. The attacks happened also, among others places, in Gdynia where the German seized the Gazolina gas factory, renamed it “Gaswerk Gotenhafen”  and kept producing and delivering gas.

 

The worst was still to come when the Soviets, German’s partners’ in crime, attacked Poland by surprise from the East on the 17th of September and entered on the 22nd in Lwow, headquarter and big production center of Gazolina SA as well as principal residence of Marian Wieleżyński and his family.

The Soviets immediately occupied Gazolina SA’s offices, buildings, factories and refineries, changed its name to “UKR-Gas”, set up a new management and employee organization, shooting down or deporting any recalcitrant employee. In particular, they deported the Engineer Zbigniew Wieleżyński, Marian’s youngest son and the directors Lech Paul and Szczesny Tarnowski (and his whole family) when they presented new company statutes “adapted” to soviet ideology.

However, the production and distribution of gas never stopped with NKVD lieutenant Lewicki in charge of discipline under direct Moscow control and with a certain Mr. Bogdanov as operation director. The same scenario unfolded for the Gazolina facilities and technical center of Boryslaw.

 

On the 29th of June 1941, the German attacking the Soviets entered in Lwow. Once more, they seized the Gazolina SA offices and production facilities immediately changed the name UKR-Gas to “Karpathen Oel Gmbh”, and replaced the NKVD by the Gestapo. The Nazi Dr. Siegfried Hinz took over the company with his second in command, the officer Stolzem. Again, the production and delivery of gas did not stop in Lwow, in Boryslaw or in Daszawa.

Another round of systematic assassination of Marian’s friends and colleagues occurred on the night of the 3rd July 1941 when the German killed 37 professors among them 7 from the Polytechnic Institute of Lwow, a particularly important institution for Marian. The Professors Bartel, Łomnicki, Stożek, Pilat, Weigel, Witkiewicz and Krukowski.

 

In 1942, in London, the General de Gaulle preparing his return in France requested from Ignacy and Leszek Wieleżyński, the two oldest sons of Marian, officers in the Polish army in Great Britain, the complete description of the Gazolina SA joint stock organization.

 

In the month of May 1944, after defeating the Germans, the Soviets came back to Lwow and again, seized the Gazolina SA offices and production facilities right away, changed the name back to UKR-Gas and, of course, the production and delivery of oil & gas did not stop. At that time, many Polish citizens were assassinated by Ukrainian milicia and, since Gazolina SA employed only Polish people, a lot of former Gazolina SA’s partners still alive were massacred.

As a matter of fact, production never stopped, only the name of the company changed. UKR-Gas then Lwiwhas (decree of 22nd of July 1947), then LwiwHas-apar and LwiwHasZbyt, then back to LwiwHas in 1992 (state company) which became public company in 1994.

 

1945 : All the Gazolina SA’s properties in the new demarcated Poland, refineries, pipelines, offices, laboratories, wells, gas stations and factories like the Gazolina’s gas factory in Gdynia’ were taken by polish authorities, without any compensation and without considering the use of the Gazolina license.

 

On April 9th 1945, Marian Wielezynski dies and is buried in Lwow (initially in the Family Chapel at the Janowski Cemetery and, after the destruction of that cemetery in the 1960s by the Communists, the family graves were moved to the Łyczakowski Cemetery).