30 April 2003, 01:36
Malgobek
City in the Republic of Ingushetia, republican subordination, rayon (sector) centre, 110 km west of Grozny. Located in Ciscaucasia, on the southern slope of the Terek Ridge, 43 km south of the railway station of Mozdok in the Prohladnaya - Makhachkala line. Population (1992 est.) 20.8 thousand, (1979 est.) 20 thousand.
Arose due to 1933 discovery of an oil field on the site of the former Chechen farms of Malgobek-balka and Chechen-balka. Town since 1939. Oil field centre; until the mid-1990s, extracted petroleum was pumped along oil pipelines to Grozny and further on to Tuapse. The city has a gas-processing plant, enterprises of food-processing industry, production of building materials.
Malgobek is primarily built up with multi-storeyed buildings in 1940-1960. Being short of fresh water, the city is poorly verdured.
