Farman Salmanov was born in the village of Morul of Shamkir District of Azerbaijan SSR in a family of farmers of Azerbaijani origin.

He soon realized that there was no oil in Kuzbass, and decided to move with volunteers from his exploration team to Surgut in Siberia without the consent of the Soviet authorities.

The authorities tried to initiate criminal prosecution of Salmanov, but had to give a post factum approval of his mission when his team threatened they would go on strike.

Farman Salmanov spent fifty years in the oil-and-gas industry of the Soviet Union and Russia, and discovered or participated in the discovery of over one hundred fields, including such huge oil and gas reserves as Mamontovskoye, Megionskoye, Pravdinskoye, Ust-Balykskoye, Surgutskoye, Urengoyskoye, Yamburgskoye, etc.

[4][5] A street in Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, an oil and gas condensate field and a motor ship was named in honor of Salmanov.

[8] [9][10] The events of life and the personality of Farman Salmanov formed the basis of the feature film “Risk Strategy” (1978) and the image of its main character Farid Askerov.

[11] Farman Salmanov is the author of more than 80 scientific papers on the problems of the formation and distribution of large oil and gas fields:[13]