Onega, Arkhangelsk Oblast

Onega ( _ru. Оне́га) is a town in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, situated at the mouth of the Onega River, a few kilometers from Onega Bay beside the White Sea. Population: ru-census|p2002=23430|p1989=26070

Nowadays, Onega is a minor port on a bay on the White Sea, which routinely freezes in winter. The town is also served by the Arkhangelsk–Murmansk rail line.

Onega is the administrative center of Onezhsky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast.

History

The Pomor village of Ust-Onega ( _ru. Усть-Оне́га) was first mentioned in Novgorod documents in 1137. It also appears on a 13th-century map of Novgorod lands. The settlement was chartered on August 19, 1780, after Pyotr Shuvalov had sold his rights to fell timber to English industrialists who built several sawmills there.

Ill-fated young captain, oceanographer and linguist Alexander Kuchin (1888-1913?), was born in Onega.

Kiy Island, offshore from Onega, and the surrounding ice fields were used as the location for filming "A Captive in the Land" in the winter of 1989–1990. The island is the site of a monastery, Holy Cross Monastery, which was closed during the era of religious persecution by the Soviets.

Economy

In 2003, the Russian inland oil shipping company Volgotanker started using the White Sea-Baltic Canal for exporting fuel oil. The scheme involved delivering oil by river tanker, over the canal and into a floating transfer terminal near the Osinki Island in the Onega Bay, 36 km north-east of the port of Onega, for transfer to Latvian seagoing tankers.

Unfortunately, on September 1, 2003, a collision between Volgotanker's "Nefterudovoz-57M" and the Latvian "Zoja-I" during such a transfer caused an oil spill. As a result, fines were paid, and the company did not get a permit for similar operations in the following year.Alexei Bambulyak, Bjorn Franzen. [http://www.wwf.ru/data/publ/oil_report_russian.pdf Transportation of oil from the Russian part of the Barents Sea region, as of January 2005] ru icon]

As of 2005, plans were in the works, by a different operator (ARM-Nefteservis), to set up oil transfer operations at a floating terminal off Osinki Island again. This time, oil would be delivered by the railway to the Shendunets station nearby, and pumped to the floating terminal by an underwater pipeline.

References

ee also

*Onega Andozero, an uncompleted military air base near Onega.

External links

*ru icon [http://www.onega.ru/ Official website of Onezhsky District municipality]