The port, which will be located just few kilometers from the border to Norway, will have the capacity to handle annually: 30 million tons of oil, 25 million tons of mineral ore and coal and 7 million tons of container traffic, BarentsObserver reports.

Public hearings on the project named “the Northern Sea Port” are due March 2. The Severnaya Neft Company, a subsidiary of the state-owned Rosneft, earlier this year presented its project plans to the local authorities, as well as to officials, researchers and industrial interests in Murmansk.

The projected port is intended to facilitate increased exports from the region. If constructed, the port could also ease pressure on the currently overloaded Murmansk port. Most of the Pechenga Bay is ice-free in winter and is big enough to receive tankers with 300,000 ton deadweight.