Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)
János Tóth: MAORT Housing Projects
János Tóth Museum of the Hungarian Petroleum Industry MAORT Housing Projects in Zala I borrowed the basic premise for my paper from Professor Tibor Weszeli from Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mures). Although he is a mathematician and famous Bolyai researcher, his sentences are current and look to the future while addressing today: "All men, all people insist on their past, on the historic events intertwined with their community, and endeavour to interpret the path of their progress again and again through the ages. Let us take care that the flame of conserving tradition does not go out in the coming generation. Because the series of lamps that die out in the human soul are the certain harbingers of the annihilation and disappearance of the community*. A people that tails to appreciate its past shall not be able to value its present either." (We are currently the suffering participants of a serious, mistake ridden, distorted process, the consequence of which is the global crisis we see unfolding, along with its longer and shorter term negative impacts.) Our homeland is no industrial powerhouse, being a small country and on account of its natural characteristics. Our hydrocarbon industry, however, has a noteworthy past, even in international comparison. Oil exploration started in the middle of the 19th century in the territory of historic Hungary —similarly to countries looking back on long tradition. After several successes and failures, one may count November 1937 as the beginning of large-scale industrial crude oil and natural gas production. This was the time when success crowned the operation of the European Gas and Electricity Company (EUROGASCO), which w*as granted a concession for the exploration of crude oil, natural gas, and other kinds of mineral oil, as well as for the working of mines from the Hungarian state in June 1933. On the basis of the results of bore marked Budafa-2, the Hungarian-American Oil Industries Limited Company (Magyar-Amerikai Olajipari Részvénytársaság - MAORT) was established on July 15, 1938. Understandably, MAORT did not launch construction projects involving high risk and cost when prospect drilling was started, due to the uncertainties of oil exploration. As soon as exploration produced results, oil production was begun, and the construction of various facilities and industrial sites became a necessity. All of this was preceded by the reinforcing of bridges, road repairs, and the design and construction of new roads. Meaning the employment of a greater workforce in a relatively small district. The construction of homes also began this way. (EUROGASCO's hiring regulations stipulated that furnished homes, heating, lighting and water, as well as water mains had to be provided to engineers employed at well drilling sites as in kind contribution.) just as a point of interest, let me mention that the average day-wage was 0.8 Pengő at this time, vet the average salary of workers in the oil industry came to 0.8-1.1 Pengő, the hourly wage of a tool pusher 2-3 Pengő, and engineers earned 1,100 Pengő a month on average. The monthly pay of primary school teachers was 80, while that of university professors 600 Pengő.
