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Murmansk governor talks Arctic with Putin

Kovtun highlighted regional economics, oil and gas developments and the establishment of a new Arctic University in Friday's meeting with President Putin

”They tell me that you have very good bays with deep waters”, the President said to Marina Kovtun.

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In their meeting in Sochi on Friday, the Murmansk leader underlined to the President that Arctic developments and the oil and gas industry remain high on the region’s agenda.

Murmansk is in the process of facilitating the establishment of Rosneft in the town of Roslyakovo and together with Novatek a plan for the building of a major engineering construction plant is under elaboration, the governor told Putin.

Novatek plans to build three floating units for the Yamal LNG project at the new facility by year 2020, Kovtun said.

According to Putin, he has been told by oil company leaders that Murmansk has ” good possibilities for expansion”, a transcript from the meeting published at the Kremlin website reads.

”I hear that your your bays are very good with good depths”, he said to the governor.

In the meeting, Kovtun also highlighted her desire to merge the region’s three current universities into one united Arctic University. In the new structure, the governor proposes to include also a mining college, a unit of the St. Petersburg-based Mining University.

According to Kovtun, the federal Ministry of Education has already expressed support for the Murmansk bid for the new Arctic University and is ready to follow up with implementation as soon as the President gives a green light.

Murmansk Oblast currently has three universities with a total of 12,000 students.