Gazprom Neft’s technology portfolio already includes more than 500 digital projects and initiatives on various areas and at various stages of implementation. This includes cognitive assistance software programmes for geologists and drillers, digital drilling support systems, intelligent energy management systems, process automation at warehouses, robotization of airport refuelling systems, and other projects. The construction of a data management system, as a new asset for the company, is becoming an important area of work. An integrated approach to digitisation will be outlined as part of the long-term digital transformation strategy currently being developed to support the company’s business strategy.
Gazprom Neft develops intelligent digital well-logging system
Gazprom Neft is developing a unique digital system for selecting optimum well-logging investigations in line with wells’ technical features and formation characteristics. Implementing this solution could allow the company’s capital and operating costs to be reduced by RUB450 million over the next 10 years.
Various geophysical well-survey systems (geographic information systems (GIS)) are now being used in studying the key characteristics of oil-bearing strata, based on the logging of natural and modelled fields, with specific equipment selected for each individual well, in line with its key construction features and the characteristics of the formation in which it is drilled, in order to obtain the most detailed and accurate information possible.
This unique digital recommendation system, “iChart Design GIS”, developed by specialists at the Gazprom Neft Science and Technology Centre together with its Information Technology Service Company subsidiary (ITSC), will help improve efficiency in planning GIS activities. This system comprises an updated database of logging tools together with an algorithm for selecting a range of studies. The system takes into account data on the intended purpose of a specific well and the geological and technological environment in which investigations are to be undertaken and, on the basis of the results, offers the user the optimum range of GIS solutions and tools.
The “iChart Design GIS” system will be developed using machine-learning technologies, collecting large volumes of data from user searches and building up experience. The planning of GIS activities will be fully automated, going forward. The project has been undertaken as part of the company’s “Electronic Asset Development” initiative (part of its Technology Strategy) and is currently unmatched anywhere in the industry. Initial indications suggest that implementing this solution will reduce the company’s capital and operating costs by more than RUB450 million over the next 10 years.
Mars Khasanov, Head of Gazprom Neft’s Technology Directorate and CEO of its Science and Technology Centre, commented: “The production cost of every tonne of oil produced at the company’s fields is made up of various elements: so we have to find the optimum solution at every stage of exploration, development and production. Only then can we profitably exploit reserves that, every year, are getting ever more challenging. In developing our own IT technologies we are involving AI electronic assistants in addressing these tasks, in line with all the data we have collected, and all the essential experience of our specialists. Which is why Electronic Asset Development is one of the key areas of Gazprom Neft’s Technology Strategy.”
