Summing up his last week’s meeting with PM Putin, Governor Mikhalchuk said the government leader had approved the idea of making Arkhangelsk Oblast the main Shtokman base, Regnum reports.
“Putin supported the proposal about the preferable localization of support industry and a complex support base in Arkhangelsk”, representatives of the region’s Moscow office told the news agency.
Putin also supported the establishment of an intermediate support base at Novaya Zemlya.
As BarentsObserver previously reported, Arkhangelsk also looks set to become the main site for training of specialists for the gas project.
-Our region has all preconditions for following up the Shtokman project in a successful manner – the infrastructure of the sea port, the available production land, energy resource reserves, as well as the available capacity at the Northern Railway, Mikhalchuk said.
The position of Arkhangelsk is also strengthened by the region’s advanced shipyard industry. The region is also part of the Belkomur project, a planned railway line linking the Barents Sea with industrial areas in the Urals and Western Siberia.
Despite the positive signals from the Government, Arkhangelsk will have to share Shtokman functions with Murmansk, which is located closer to the giant field and has more favorable port areas.
