OREANDA-NEWS. September 14, 2007. Almetyevsk witnessed the ceremony of inaugurating a monument dedicated to the production of the three billionth ton of crude oil in Tatarstan on September, 31.

Twelve powerful silver jets 27 meter high at the intersection of  Lenin Street and Stroiteley Avenue symbolize a gush of crude oil.

A decision to build the monument was taken in September last year. The idea to build the monument belongs to the top management of OAO TATNEFT in the person of Shafagat Fahrazovich Takhautdinov, General Director, since production of such a significant amount as three billion tons of the "black gold" truly deserves commemoration of such memorable achievement in the history for future generations. The monument's design has been developed by the Ufa Branch of the Artists' Union of Russia.

The structure is based on the piles-supported field, covering a concrete plinth.  The Stella is a solid frame, sheathed with metal sheets painted with application of the particularly resistant paint.

There are no analogues to this monument in Tatarstan. This symbol of the great festivity achieved by many generations of the oilmen is intended to be a new milestone in the colorful history of the Tatarstan's "black gold" and it has a potential of becoming a new symbol of Almetyevsk.

Church

Almetyevsk witnessed the ceremony of inaugurating a Church of the Kazan Icon of the Godmother in Almetyevsk on August 29. Its construction began in 2002 with donations from the city businesses and residents. The major part of the funds in the amount of 94 million rubles was allocated by OAO TATNEFT with 35.5 million rubles allocated in 2007.

The overall height of the structure from the basement to the main rood top is about 45 meters. There are two floors in the Church: first floor is intended for religious ceremonies while the second one located under the high dome is for the main service. The Church is 45 meters high and occupies 0.77 hectare of the surrounding area.

The opening ceremony was preceded by the Church bells chiming. The largest of the 11 bells is a gift of OAO TATNEFT to the newly built Church weighing 1,350 kg, while the weight of the smallest one is 11 kg.

The Church area is sufficient to accommodate 800 persons and is incommensurably greater than   the small Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, which was the only one in Almetyevsk earlier.

The project was entrusted to the Design Institute 'Chelny Project'. The Church was intended to be built as a miniature imitation of the Cathedral of the Redeemer in Moscow: a cube-shaped basic structure is crowned with four small domes in the corners and with one onion shaped big dome in the center. In addition to the ceremonial  hall the Church also incorporates the  so-called stylobate part of the building, housing administrative and service premises of the Church: a kitchen, a large dining room, prriests' offices, the choir "classroom", etc.

Ice Stadium "Neftyanik"

The ceremony of opening the Ice Stadium "Neftyanik" of the Sports School for Children and Youth in the  framework of celebrating  the production of the three billionth ton of crude oil in Tatarstan was held on August 31.

The year 2007 actually witnessed construction of a new facility replacing the old stadium built a few decades ago and a newly built one meets the most up-to-date requirements now. A decision about full renovation of the sporting facility was initiated by Shafagat Takhautdinov, General Director of OAO TATNEFT and the Ice Hockey Federation President of the Republic of Tatarstan .

The main investor in the construction of the new ice palace is OAO TATNEFT allocating the amount in excess of 100 million rubles for the transformation of the facility. The roofing and the walls as well as the load-bearing structure were dismantled and replaced. The stadium was equipped with air-conditioning and ventilation systems inside. However, the main purpose of the reconstruction work was to provide for incorporation of the heating system into the building. In addition to upgrading the ice hockey pitch the stadium was equipped with new changing locker rooms and a coachers' office. The new place is capable of accommodating 500 persons.

Transformation of the Ice Stadium of the Sports School for Children and Youth with Almetyevsk Hockey Club "Neftyanik" will be another milestone in rapid development of the children and mass hockey in the south-east of Tatarstan.

A friendly game between the Neftyanik team, Almetyevsk, and the Ak Bars team, Kazan, will be played on September 1 at the stadium. The visit of the two-time champions of Russia, and the last year's winners of the European Champions Cup in Almetyevsk becomes a tradition, it takes place for the third time in the course of the last four years. The game will start at 4 pm. A press conference with participation of the chief coaches and leading players of both clubs will be held after the game.

Tennis Court

The opening ceremony of the Tatneft Open all-Russia tennis competition dedicated to the production of the three billionth ton of crude oil in the Republic of Tatarstan was held in Almetyevsk on September 29. The open tennis championship of Tatarstan in the framework of the Russian tennis tour was held for the fifth time and for the first time the selected venue for the competition was not at the tennis courts of Kazan, but rather at the spanking new sports complex in Almetyevsk, constructed with OAO TATNEFT financing. The tournament was assigned the first category the same year.

The Tennis City Complex, which is a gift of the oilmen to the inhabitants of the oil producing region, includes a playground for children, walking and jogging tracks, green area, four open courts, where in addition to playing tennis you can also play volleyball and badminton. Four tennis courts closed by the arched structure with Play-it coverage are already open for the visitors. Up to 40 persons can play tennis at the same time here. The construction of a two-storied administrative block, which houses a cafe, a medical inspection room, massage rooms, a coachers' office, changing locker rooms and shower rooms, a gym, a service center for repair and rental of sporting equipment has been completed.

The tournament has been organized by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of  Tatarstan and the Tennis Federation of the Russian Federation have been able to properly appraise the new sports complex in Almetyevsk, which incorporates a number of courts with various types of the ground and floor coverage.

The tournament has been attended by Russian world-class tennis players, including the stars of the lawn tennis: Andrey Cherkasov, the honored Master of Sports, bronze award winner in the men's singles at the Olympic Games, two times holder of the Kremlin Cup, and Andrey Stolyarov, the honored Master of Sports, the 2002 world champion in tennis in the representative team of Russia.

The qualifying picking rounds with participation of professionals from Moscow, Novosibirsk, Ufa, Kirov, Naberezhnye Chelny, Togliatti and other towns in Russia began already at the new tennis courts of the Centre on Monday, August 27.

The tournament prize fund with OAO TATNEFT being the main sponsor amounts to one million rubles. The first Tatneft Open of the lawn tennis will be over on Sunday, September 2.

Surgery Block

There are only a few days left before commissioning another large social facility of a Surgery Block in Almetyevsk in the composition of OAO TATNEFT Medsanchast (OAO TATNEFT Medical Center).

Over 40 construction companies, firms and design institutions have been involved in the construction of the surgery complex. This facility is one of the largest in the south-eastern part of the Republic of Tatarstan and the builders and designers from Naberezhnye Chelny, Kazan, Moscow, and even experts from Germany, have been involved into the construction works. The scientists of TatNIPIneft (R&D Institute of OAO TATNEFT) have contributed greatly into the construction work: they have designed the heat transfer routes, cable lines and integrated transformer substations.

According to the project the surgery complex is an eight-storey building. The complex is expected to become one of the largest and most sophisticatedly equipped facilities in the Republic. OAO TATNEFT spent about 1 billion 400 million rubles for its construction.

Commissioning of the integrated Surgery Block in OAO TATNEFT Medical Center will allow development of three new medical treatment areas: ophthalmology, operative dentistry, and specifically, maxillofacial surgery and cardiosurgery.


The experts of the Medical Center will be able to introduce the latest developments of the medical science, using full potential of scientific ideas: high-tech neurosurgery, X-ray surgery of blood purification methods, the most accurate diagnostics of many diseases, all kinds of intervention with application of the latest technologies, including open heart surgery.

The doctors are trained on a regular basis, including training at the training centers abroad. An agreement has been achieved with equipment suppliers who are prepared toarrange training of the OAO TATNEFT Medical Center doctors for operating the specific equipment.

Apartment Building in Almetyevsk

In Almetyevsk the new inhabitants of a new 220 apartments house moved in on August 31. In the course of a solemn ceremony the keys to the new apartments were awarded to the families of young oilmen participating in the social mortgage. It is also worth noting that 50 young families received fully furnished apartments fit with furniture they had chosen themselves which is also covered by the installment payment scheme.

It is appropriate at this point to recall that starting January 1, 2005, OAO TATNEFT has been performing the functions of the housing construction ordering customer in the south-east of Tatarstan. A number of mortgage participants is growing every year. As of now this number accounts for about approximately 5,000 employees of Tatneft Company with one third of them represented by young people. One reason for this is a mechanism of extending a lump sum loan to compensate for the initial contribution in acquisition of the residential space. Furthermore, in accordance with the social mortgage program OAO TATNEFT provides for partial installment compensation payments for the young families allotting a credit  for housing mortgage loans in the amount of 200,000 rubles at the birth of a child. A program "Young Family" is being implemented, which accumulates the funds of the federal and the Republican budgets. The young people have the opportunity to become more actively involved in a mortgage through providing non-repayable grants.

In aggregate the oilmen have planned to commission 747 new apartments with total space area over 50 thousand square meters by the Oilmen Day  in honor of producing the three billionth ton of crude oil in Tatarstan.

House-warming in the apartment houses built under the social mortgage program will be celebrated in Almetyevsk, Bugulma, Nurlat, Zainsk, Nizhnekamsk, Yelabuga and Karabash.

Horse-Back Riding Sports School

The horse-back riding sports school was built in 2006 with OAO TATNEFT funding. Currently, it enrolls more than 140 children. Training is performed in the framework of a generalized program "Equestrian", which includes general and special physical training, mastering and perfecting of skills and tactics of the horse raging sports, upkeep and management of horses.

The results achieved by the trainees of the Almetyevsk horse riding sports school during a short period of time are encouraging, indeed. Already in April 2007 they participated in the annual festival of the horse riding sports in Kazan, where they received their first awards ranking the first, second and third in a variety of horse show jumping competitions and the third in team placing among the teams from Moscow, Kazan, Yelabuga, Naberezhnye Chelny and the Republic of Mari-El.