The bridge head of “big oil”: the first settlement of geological explorers in Surgut

The article considers the process of formation of the first settlement of prospectors who arrived in Surgut in 1957 to organize oil exploration. Special attention is paid to the creation of industrial and settlement infrastructure based on the memoirs of “shadow actors” collected by the author - direct participants in the events, newspaper publications and archival materials. The importance of the first settlement of geologists is noted as the main springboard for future geological exploration in one of the promising oil areas of the Middle Ob region. The author notes that the infrastructure of the exploration village was compactly created in close proximity to the main life support facilities of the Surgut district center. This circumstance made it possible to compensate for the difficulties that arose as a result of the unsettled nature of geologists. A positive aspect was the proximity of the village to the main transport hub - the Ob River. This ensured the successful construction of transport logistics with other settlements in the region and the main base of the expedition, located in Novosibirsk. This circumstance in subsequent years made it possible to organize oil prospecting operations in the districts adjacent to Surgut, where separate parties of geologists were located. The bridgehead of the Surgut oil exploration expedition became the main resource center, where the material and technical arsenal for the rest of the geological units of the region, required for the search and discovery of the first oil fields, was accumulated and distributed.