[4] Born into an Armenian family in Tbilisi, Ivan Mirzoev moved to Baku and began working in the silk trade.
[5] In the years between 1821 and 1872, the Russian Czarist government maintained a monopoly over the Apsheron peninsula's oil fields.
[6] Mirzoev, who held concessions in Apsheron since 1863, immediately took up the opportunity to build his own drilling sites once the monopoly of the Russian government ended in 1872.
[9][4] The success of the drilling of Mirzoev was the first element contributing to the Baku oil rush.
[2] The company remained active until 1918 when it was forced to shut down due to massacres against Armenians.