Ust-Luga (,

Votic Votic or Votian (, ) , is a Finnic language spoken by the Vots of Ingria, belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. Votic is spoken only in Krakolye (now part of Ust-Luga) and Luzhitsy, two villages in Kingiseppsky District in ...

: ''Laugasuu'', both meaning 'mouth of the Luga', , ) is a

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), downward movement of a structure's foundation *Settlement (finance), where securities are delivered against payment of money *Settlement (litigatio ...

and

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Kingiseppsky District Kingiseppsky District (, ) is an administrativeOblast Law #32-oz and municipalLaw #81-oz district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Leningrad Oblast, seventeen in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It is located in the southwest of the oblast ...

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast (, ; ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). The oblast has an area of and a population of 2,000,997 (2021 Russian census, 2021 Census); up from 1,716,868 recorded in the 2010 Russian census ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, near the Estonian border, situated on the

Luga River The Luga () is a river in Novgorodsky and Batetsky Districts of Novgorod Oblast and Luzhsky, Volosovsky, Slantsevsky, and Kingiseppsky Districts of Leningrad Oblast of Russia. The river flows into the Luga Bay of the Gulf of Finland. It free ...

near its entry into the

Luga Bay The Luga Bay (Russian: Лужская губа) is a shallow bay near the southern Russian coast of the Gulf of Finland. It is free of ice 326 days a year. Kurgalsky Peninsula separates the bay from the Bay of Narva to the west, while the Soikin ...

of the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

, about west of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. Since the embargo on Russian oil exports, Ust-Luga port in addition to Primorsk, Murmansk and

Novorossiysk Novorossiysk (, ; ) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities designated by the Soviet Union as a Hero City. The population was History In antiquity, the shores of the ...

is main port for Russian shadow fleet of tankers.

Port of Ust-Luga

Ust-Luga is the site of an important coal and fertiliser terminal. Constructed at a cost of $2.1 billion, work started in 1997, in part to avoid having to ship dry cargo via the newly independent

Baltic states The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

, and was accelerated at the urging of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

, who inaugurated the new port facilities in 2001. The 3,700-metre approach channel is capable of accommodating ships with a capacity of 150,000 tonnes and more. In May 2008, Putin confirmed that Ust-Luga would be the terminal of the projected Second Baltic Pipeline, an oil transportation route bypassing

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. The Ust-Luga container terminal was opened in December 2011, and is operated by the National Container Company. The port adjoins the

Ust-Luga Multimodal Complex Ust-Luga Multimodal Complex (, ''Multimodalnyi kompleks Ust-Luga'') is a project aimed at development of the portside area of about 3000 hectares located on the Soikinsky Peninsula by the Gulf of Finland in close proximity to the terminals of ...

, which allows for rapid freight handling on site. In 2018, the port handled 98.7 million tonnes of cargo. In October 2021,

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...

and RusGazDobycha announced they would build a plant at Ust-Luga to process

ethane Ethane ( , ) is a naturally occurring Organic compound, organic chemical compound with chemical formula . At standard temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. Like many hydrocarbons, ethane is List of purification methods ...

-containing natural gas, and a large-scale

liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...

(LNG) production plant,

Baltic LNG Baltic LNG is a liquefied natural gas plant under construction on the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea in Ust-Luga, Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The plant's capacity would be 13 million tons of LNG per year. The planned launch date has changed many t ...

, with a capacity of 13 million tonnes of LNG per year. High-ethane gas from the Tambeyskoye gas field, and the Achimov and Valanginian deposits of the Nadym-Pur-Taz region, will supply the plant. Ust-Luga port is affected by an embargo on Russian oil exports, but also one of the main port for Russian shadow fleet of tankers. The Ust-Luga oil terminal, operated by

Novatek Novatek (, , ) is Russia's second-largest natural gas producer (behind Gazprom), and the seventh-largest publicly traded company globally by natural gas production volume. The company was originally known as OAO FIK Novafininvest. Novatek is bas ...

, was attacked by a Ukrainian

aerial drone An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

on the night of 21 January 2024, as a part of the hostilities resulting from the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, causing a fire that forced the suspension of some operations.

Population

As of 2005, the population of Ust-Luga did not exceed 2,000, but the port administration expected it to grow to 34,000 by 2025.Балтийское информационное агентство
Население нового города Усть-Луга в 2025 году составит 34,5 тысяч человек

References

External links

Ust-Luga Sea Port
Rural localities in Leningrad Oblast Port cities and towns in Russia Oil terminals {{LeningradOblast-geo-stub

Port of Ust-Luga

Population

See also

References

External links