Surgut

Surgut is the largest and the most economically advanced city in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra.
The city is located on the river Ob. Population: 297,000 people.

Historical reference

Surgut was founded in 1594 as a timber fortress by a Cossack detachment. Soon the convenient geographic location and water routes made it the centre of a huge territory - the Surgut province. The local population hunted for fur animals and caught valuable fish.
The city was born again in the early 1960s with the discovery of huge oil deposits in the area.

Mayor Dmitry Popov

Economy

The basis of the city's economy is the energy generation and the oil industries. Surgut is the home to the headquarters and the main production facilities of OAO Surgutneftegaz - one of the leading oil producers in Russia.
Surgut's contribution to the economy of Ugra is at least 30%.
In the first nine months of 2008 the volume of locally manufactured goods shipped, works completed, and services provided by the city's large and medium-sized companies was amounted to 531 billion roubles. 476 billion roubles out of that amount was the share of the mineral resources production. One of Gazprom subsidiaries - Gazprom Transgaz-Surgut is a Surgut-based company.

The Surgut power generation facilities - SDPP-1 (State District Power Plant) and SDPP-2 running on the associated petroleum gas - are considered to be amongst the most powerful generating facilities in the world. Their aggregate capacity is 8 thousand megawatt. Electricity from these facilities is supplied to Ugra and the Tyumen Oblast, as well as to other Russian regions.

The city has a strong construction sector. Annual construction volume amounts to about 200 thousand square meters of housing, as well as leisure, commercial, and public facilities.
The city lies at the crossroads of the transcontinental railway and the high capacity water transportation route - the Ob river. It boasts an international airport and a river port. A federal highway runs through the city. Surgut is one of the leading Russian cities in terms of the number of motor vehicles per capita. According to the latest statistics, the city has over 130,000 cars.

Culture & Education

Surgut is a growing city with young and wealthy population. Over 90,000 of its inhabitants belong to the 14 to 30 age group. The city has a network of high schools and universities, including a State University, a State Pedagogical University, several branches of leading Russian universities, music and medical colleges, vocational schools, and technical colleges.
In terms of arts and cultural institutions, we find 92 libraries, two museums (a museum of local lore and an art museum), an art gallery, a history and culture centre, and a philharmonic centre.
The city has two worshipping Orthodox Christian churches and another three under construction, a jami mosque, prayer houses, and congregations of other faiths.