ST. PETERSBURG, December 7. /TASS/. The state-run Arktikugol (Arctic coal) Company finalized to upgrade the Russian port infrastructures on Norway's Spitsbergen Archipelago. Under the upgrade concept, berths of Russia's Barentsburg and Piramida settlements will serve a big number of vessels at a time, and in future they will become transport hubs in the region, Arktikugol's CEO Ildar Neverov said in a lecture at the MGIMO University.

"Over the recent year, the Arktikugol Company has carried out a significant amount of work to upgrade the port infrastructures, to make the depth at the berth 13 meters and to commission a ship repair center," he said. "The concept to reconstruct the berths in settlements Barentsburg and Piramida is to have them being able to serve a big number of vessels at a time. We are confident that the settlements of the Russian presence have a big potential to become transport hubs in that region."

The European Union's sanctions against Russia and Russian companies have hindered the logistics to the settlements of the Russian presence on Spitsbergen, he continued. But thanks to negotiations with the Norwegian side, to the development of new supply chains, Arktikugol has managed to build reliable multimodal logistics to serve the company and Russian citizens on the archipelago.

In compliance with agreements with the Norwegian side, Arktikugol is working actively to improve the environmental standards of its activities and to cut emissions of harmful substances. The settlements of the Russian presence have been using closed-cycle waste sorting and recycling.

As the Norwegians plans to use on the archipelago exclusively electric vehicles, Arktikugol has purchased and shipped to Spitsbergen the first electric car and will continue to build up the fleet. The company has been upgrading the coal thermal power plant in Barentsburg to make it more environmentally friendly, and the coal production on Spitsbergen will be minimized to meet necessary own needs.

"On the Spitsbergen Archipelago, the Arktikugol Company's economic activities comply with the Svalbard Agreement, under which we can work in a non-discriminatory, full-fledged, balanced manner, conduct activities, in particular, in coal mining, surely, in accordance with the Norwegian legislation. In everyday, economic and long-term development issues, the company cooperates with the office of Svalbard's governor and personally with Governor Lars Fause, with whom we have managed to build and maintain constructive, pragmatic, working relations," he added.