Novy Urengoy is one of the biggest and most developed industrial cities of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. Novy Urengoy consists of four large areas: Southern and Northern parts of the city, Korotchayevo and Limbyayakha. The Southern and Northern parts are divided by tundra zone and the rivers Sedye-Yakha and Tamchara-Yakha. Korotchayevo and Limbyayakha are situated at a distance of over 70 kilometers from the city center. Before 2005 Korotchayevo and Limbyayakha were constituents of the municipality. At referendum in September 2004 the population of the townships voted for joining Novy Urengoy, which was secured by Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District Legislation.

There are a few theories on how the word 'Urengoy' originated. Translated from the Khanty language, the word 'ure' means 'staritsa' (a former river bed), in the Nenets language there is a word 'ngo', or an island, i.e. 'an island in a former river bed'. Some sources translate the word 'Urengoy' as 'bold hill', 'a hill where there grow larches suitable for making poles for 'chums' (tents)', or 'a hill covered with yellow grass'. There was a time when it was believed that 'Urengoy' means 'rotten place'. Most probably, it was a name for Urengoy by builders of one of GULAG's camps, who laid the railway Salekhard - Igarka, whose construction was folded up after Stalin's death.

The municipality's population is 106,000 people. In Novy Urengoy representatives of over 40 nationalities live, among them there are: the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Tartars, the Azerbaijani, the Chechens, the Dagestans, the Armenians, the Belorussians, the Moldavians, the Bashkirs, and others. Such multinational community emerged as a result of 'great appeal' for exploration of Urengoy oil-gas-condensate deposit being one of the world's most unique.

The discoverer of Urengoy structure in 1966 became the seismic station headed by V.L. Tsybenko. When exploration geologists drilled the usual prospect hole, nobody could imagine what giant they faced: such a deep of 'blue fire' in the earth's womb had never been come across with before.

On July 6, 1966, the team of foreman driller V. Polupanov drilled the first operating hole in Urengoy and on geological map of the country there appeared a new unique gas deposit - Urengoyskoye.

In September 1973 a symbolic stick was driven in on the place of a future city. By summer 1974 several wooden houses had already been constructed. In the first street, which was called Optimists' Street, there was a school, a shop, a library, and a bakery. Then, Ground Breakers' Street sprang up.

On August 5, 1975, the township of Novy Urengoy was officially registered. The builder Pyotr Vasilyevich Danilchenko became the first chairman of the township board.

In 1977 a project of the city construction was developed.

In January 1978 production company Urengoygazdobycha was set up; Ivan Spiridonovich Nikonenko was appointed its head. The same year the first Central Processing Facility in Urengoy was launched; industrial exploitation of Urengoy deposit started. On May 30 the first billion of cubic meters of Urengoy gas was extracted.

On June 16, 1980, Novy Urengoy obtained the status of a city.

In 1982 a trillionth cubic meter of gas was produced.

In 1983 the construction of gas pipeline Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod was completed; the following year gas from Urengoy was received by Western Europe.

In May 1986 Rim Sultanovich Suleymanov becomes Director General of Urengoygazdobycha; he is still the person to head this largest company of Gazprom.

On November 4, 1987, LLC Urengoygazprom reached a daily gas extraction volume of 1 billion cubic meters.

20 years ago operation of another gas-condensate deposit started - Yamburgskoye; at the same time Gazprom set up LLC Yamburggazdobycha, which is nowadays headed by Director General Oleg Petrovich Andreyev.

Today in Yamburg deposit there are 11 active Gas Treatment Facilities Plants, seven booster compression stations; 187 pads of gas and horizontally drilled condensate wells are exploited.

During its exploitation Yamburg gave to the country about 2.4 trillion cubic meters of gas and over 10 million tons of condensate. LLC Yamburggazdobycha provides the country with over 40 percent of gas, having the biggest in Gazprom reserves of hydrocarbon materials and unique technologies.

On October 1, 2002, the first industrial gas of the trans-polar gas-oil-condensate deposit flew into the gas main pipeline Zapolyarnoye - Novy Urengoy. The enterprise output is over 580 million cubic meters of gas and 4,500 tons of condensate per day.

The economy of Novy Urengoy is determined by the enterprises directly connected with gas, condensate, and oil extraction, those belonging to Gazprom: LLC Urengoygazprom, LLC Yamburggazdobycha, and a branch of Tyumenburgaz - Burgaz.

Currently, exploration and development of new oil-gas-condensate deposits like Zapolyarnoye, Pestsovoye, Beregovoye, Yen-Yakhinskoye, reserves of Achimovskaya formation, give us grounds to anticipate a significant increase in production of hydrocarbon materials.

Extraction of hydrocarbon materials is provided by construction, transport, and repair companies. The largest ones among them are: CJSC Urengoymontazpromstroy, CJSC production-construction company Urengoypromgrazhdanstroy, OJSC Urengoydorstroy, OJSC Urengoytruboprovodstroy, CJSC Urengoygidromekhanizatsiya, production-construction company Promstroykomplektmontazh, OJSC Urengoygazpromstroy, etc.

Over 80 percent of those employed in economy sector of Novy Urengoy work in material production, including 24 percent of economically active population who work at enterprises of gas sphere, 11 percent - in transport, 35 percent - in construction, 18 percent in production.

The city's distinguishing features are a high level of production and social infrastructure and highly qualified human recourses.

Social and economic development of municipal education carries on within the limits of target municipal programs.

Novy Urengoy is provided with all means of transport. One of the most necessary means for the inhabitants of Novy Urengoy is air transport.

The airport of Novy Urengoy is maintained by the state unitary enterprise Novy Urengoy United Air Group and welcomes planes from Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Tyumen, Samara, Rostov, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Mineralnye Vody, Krasnodar, and other Russian cities. The airport management are thinking of modernizing and lengthening of take-off runway, development of the square near the terminal building setting up the entire infrastructure. The first step of the project came to be the startup of arrival lounge in 2002. High quality of services, reliability and safety are the key criteria of work of Novy Urengoy pilots.

Korotchayevo station of Surgut section of Sverdlovsk railway is the major transport hub, a crossing of railway branches heading for Novy Urengoy and Nadym, which, following south via Tobolsk and Tyumen, join the All-Russia railways network.

On September 15, 2003, in the township of Korotchayevo a railway station was started up, passenger traffic was restored on the section Korochayevo-Novy Urengoy; on the same day deluxe train Yamal between Moscow and Novy Urengoy was started.

In 2004 the automobile road Purovsk - Korotchayevo was opened. Now inhabitants of Novy Urengoy can easily set off for a vacation by car.

The river port Korotchayevo takes an important part in the economy of the municipality, connecting various settlements of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District with the Northern Sea Route. OJSC Urengoy River Port provides cargos delivery for gas extracting and constructing enterprises.

Inhabitants of Novy Urengoy are provided with food and industrial commodities by over 400 organizations of retail business, 6 consumer goods shopping malls, and 36 catering units; there are 13 enterprises providing personal services.

According to the data of census of 2002, population of the municipality is represented by 104,500 people.

The city demographic situation is stable - annual birth rate is about 14 people per 1,000 inhabitants. The number of children and young people below 18 is 29,800 people.

In Novy Urengoy there are 38 active pre-school educational institutions, 20 comprehensive education schools, an upper secondary school, an evening secondary school, the Center Support for children with kenogenesis, 2 elementary schools, a school on the basis of a kindergarten, a school of play and music classes, and 2 musical schools. The basic vocational education in Novy Urengoy can be obtained in the technical school of gas industry, the pedagogical school, the branch of Salekhard medical school, the training college.

In Novy Urengoy there are 7 active branches of different high schools. The place of honor is taken by Yamal Oil and Gas Institute, a branch of Tyumen State Oil and Gas University, as well as а branch of Tyumen State University.

Novy Urengoy healthcare is represented by 11 medical establishments. The biggest one among them is the city municipal multifield hospital.

Novy Urengoy inhabitants are fond of physical fitness and sports. There are 17 establishments targeting at sports and keep-fit support. All in all, there are 24,500 people engaged in fitness and sports activities.

In the city there is a well-developed infrastructure for leisure arrangement; the basic grounds of which is the city recreation center Oktyabr, the Cultural and Sports Center Gazodobytchik, the Center of National Culture, the Cultural and Sports Center Dorozhnik, cultural and sports complexes of Korotchayevo and Limbyayakha.

Information is provided by 4 broadcasting and 4 printing media.

Telephone number: (34949) 6-00-00
Fax number: (34949) 6-02-06
E-mail: adm@newurengoy.ru

The internet-site of the city administration: www.newurengoy.ru