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Coat of arms of Nefteyugansk
'Nefteyugansk' () is a
city in
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug,
Russia. The city is located south of the
Ob River, close to the larger city of
Surgut. Population: 107,830 (
2002 Census). It is served by
Nefteyugansk Airport.
The city was founded on
October 16,
1967. Prior to that, an oil field had been discovered in 1961. The main and the only big enterprise in the city ''Yuganskneftegaz'' was founded in February of 1966. "Yugansk" - comes from the Khanty (aboriginal) name of a small river near the city, "nefte" means oil in Russian, and "gaz" is natural gas. The economy of the city remains
petroleum-based, and was a major centre for the Russian oil enterprise ''
YUKOS'', which owned ''Yuganskneftegaz''. In fact, the "Yu" in "YUKOS" comes from the "yu" in "Nefteyugansk" and therefor from "Yuganskneftegaz". Other three leters come from the oil-refining factory "Kuibyshev-Org-Sintez", situated in Samara city (former name in the USSR was Kuibyshev city). The city remained considerably poorer than Surgut because of bad salary policy of YUKOS oil Company; and people try to move to Surgut to work for another famous Russian oil company - "Surgutneftegaz". It is not easy because of the considerable differences in prices for housing between Nefteyugansk and Surgut.
In June of 1998, the mayor of the city,
Vladimir Petukhov, was shot and killed, and a ''Yukos'' employee was charged with the murder. Petukhov had been one of ''Yukos's critics. On
September 20, the deputy mayor of Nefteyugansk, Dmitry Yegortsev, was assailed and wounded with a knife. Another deputy mayor, Igor Gribanov, died in a fire at his home in 2006.
Since January 2005 Yuganskneftegas belongs to the State Owned Oil Company - "Rosneft". People still live in the city under stress and uncertainty.
Twin cities
Nefteyugansk is
twinned with
Anklam in
Germany and
Târgovişte in
Romania.
References
Senior Official Found Dead in Oil-Rich Siberian Province
External links
★
Official website of Nefteyugansk
★
Official website of the Nefteyugansk City administration, only in Russian
★
Official website of the Nefteyugansk Region administartion, only in Russian