New Production Process Accelerators for a New Economic Oil and Gas Reality at Smart Oil & Gas 2020 Forum

On September 17-18, 2020, the 6^th Federal IT Forum of the Russian oil and gas industry Smart Oil&Gas which is annually held by the ComNews information group took place for the 6^th time. This year, the traditional autumn event was held online for the first time. The threat of COVID-19, decrease of product prices, crisis and restrictions caused by the latter not only modified the format of the event, but also its agenda: the key topic of discussion of all business events was the problem of oil and gas production efficiency increase with the help of digital technologies applied in the new economic realities.

Traditionally, the heads of digital transformation departments of the largest oil and gas companies, representatives of IT solution providers, leading experts, analysts, and representatives of industry media took part in Smart Oil&Gas 2020. Among the companies which took part in the forum were: Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Sibur, IBM, SAP, ITPS, Cisco, Global CIO community, et al. Kirill Kravchenko, Member of the Executive Board, Deputy General Director for Organizational Affairs at Gazprom Neft PJSC opened the event with a welcoming speech. Simon Cushing, Research Director in the Energy and Utilities team at Gartner, became a special guest of the event; he gave an overview of the new trends and transformation priorities in the oil and gas sector. “2020 is unique, it combines three trends at once: the transformations inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and digital and energy transitions,” noted the Gartner expert.       

Can modern tools help oil and gas companies cope with the negative impact of the crisis inflicted by the pandemic? Do digital transformation programs and strategies need to be revised now, considering market unpredictability and the shift in priorities? Today, the answer for these and many other questions is sought by all oil and gas companies that were making and confidently delivering long-range plans until 2020 dictated the new rules. Many oil and gas companies are cutting back on their investment programs, striving to minimize risks, but at the same time they are even more in need of the key advantages that digital technologies offer. Among the main effects expected from the introduction of modern digital technologies in the new market conditions are: cost reduction, performance growth, efficient use of natural resources, risk coverage (including those associated with foreign sanctions), quick (and best of all, preventive) response to market changes.

Can this be achieved in a short time?  Leonid Tikhomirov, CEO of the ITPS Group of Companies gave one of the answers to this question. As part of the Digital Field session, the expert presented a range of digital systems and methods making it possible to achieve a significant rise in the economic and production efficiency of an oil and gas production enterprise in just 2-3 months after implementation of the new solution. The approach is based on the use of functional modules provided by ITPS as a service based on the Russian AVIST Oil&Gas platform. The solution is equipped with specialized software tools allowing to speed up the work of specialists with digital field models and production system as a whole, integrated production plans, production management systems and other technologies which are part of the Intelligent Field concept. 

“The economic efficiency of any oil and gas production asset is always based on accurate calculation and use of precise data. Can anything be improved here too? The technology that we have developed and successfully apply in our projects allows performing more multiple-choice calculations in shorter time and less money, finding the most optimal option and clearly achieving the target set by the customer: making up for the shortfalls, reducing capex and opex or increasing productivity, etc. Using such process accelerators, our customers get tangible results in the first months of technology application," mentioned the CEO of the ITPS Group of Companies.   

A virtual 3D exhibition was held within the framework of the forum. Participants of the event could take a tour of the digital environment, the functionality allowed them to move inside the exhibition with one click, participate in interactive communication with the visitors and the exhibitors, get acquainted with the latest technologies and achievements in the field of digitalization of oil and gas sector companies. The participants of the event agreed that the online format, although it was necessary, appeared capable of ensuring effective business communications at a high level.