Atyraou

Atyraou (in the past Gouriev) is a city of the Kazakhstan of 200.000 inhabitants bordering the Caspian Sea, with the mouth of the river the Ural.

History

The city was created under the name of Nijni Yaitzki gorodok () in 1645. It was a advanced Russian military station because of its strategic position. The city was called Gouriev (or Guryev) of 1708 with 1992.

Economy

In 1979 the oilfield of Tenguiz was discovered, to 350 km in the south of Atyrau. It is the most important oil reservoir discovered these last years: with estimated reserves of 9 billion barrels, it is the sixth layer in the world. The outlet for the oil of Tenguiz is the town of Atyraou. This layer also contains important gas reserves naturalness. The exploitation of this layer was conceded at company mixed between the American groups Chevron and ExxonMobil and the Kazakh State. The development of this layer completely transformed the town of Atyraou, become new a eldorado oil. Many hotels, stores and shopping malls, ten casinos were built. The city lives at the rate/rhythm of the thousands of expatriates American, British, Italian, Indian and Chinese, employed by hundreds of foreign companies. But the local population hardly benefits from this expansion, because the money of oil leaves to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, and the prices exploded.

Atyrau has an airport (code AITA: GUW).

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