The Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, where Surgut is located, is famous for its minerals and, first of all, for its large hydrocarbon reserves. The city is located in an area equivalent to the Far North. The climate in the region is continental, with long and very cold winters. The city is in the UTC +05: 00 time zone, which means that the time in Surgut is two hours ahead of Moscow.
History of Surgut
The region where Surgut is located began to be actively developed by Russian settlers in the middle of the 16th century, however, the city itself was founded only in 1594 by order of Tsar Fedor Ioannovich, which makes it one of the oldest cities in Siberia. It was founded by a governor, a merchant and a Cossack, and this is reflected in the monument that adorns the central square of the city, but a fourth, fictional figure of a priest is added to the three real figures.
For a long time after the founding of the city, the region where Surgut is located served as a place of exile. It was here that people who participated in the uprising of Stepan Razin were exiled. Until the 1930s the city was of little interest for the development of the economy, however, with the start of mining, interest in the region grew sharply.
City Economy
Today, Surgut is the administrative center of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, which, in turn, is part of the Tyumen region. While the population of Khanty-Mansiysk is a little more than 98,000 people, the population of Surgut is more than 360,000 people, which creates a unique situation for Russia when the administrative center of the region is also not the largest city.
Today, the city’s economy is inextricably linked with the production, processing and transportation of hydrocarbons, the vast reserves of which are located in the vicinity of Surgut. About 89% of the city budget is provided by the oil industry. Significant natural resources make the region where Surgut is located one of the richest in the country, and the city itself is the fourth in terms of welfare.
Transport situation in the city
Like any other large city, Surgut has a developed public transport network. However, the quality of this network does not meet the requirements for modern urban transport. So, in the city there are no trams and trolleybuses, and instead of them only buses work and even more - shuttles.
As for intercity transport, the federal highway connecting Tyumen-Tobolsk-Nefteyugansk-Surgut-Nizhnevartovsk passes through the region where Surgut is located. In addition, the city has its own airport, from which international flights are also operated.