Gazprom Neft and Russia’s ITMO University, St Petersburg, become the first organisations in Russia to start training specialists in driverless transport
Driverless vehicles
Gazprom Neft successfully tested Russia’s first unmanned freight vehicles at fields in western Siberia and the Yamal Peninsula in early 2020, with modified driverless KAMAZ and GAZelle Next vehicles covering almost 3,000 kilometres of northern roads without incident.
This project confirmed the potential for using unmanned vehicles to improve safety in transporting freight, as well as in optimising supplies to inaccessible regions. The main advantage of unmanned vehicles lies in their unlimited operational integrity. Equipped with an autonomous control system, vehicles do not get tired or worn out, and do not make mistakes — even on challenging routes, and in freezing temperatures, blizzards, or poor visibility.
In comparison with manned alternatives, unmanned vehicles are 50% safer, and can lead to freight-cost reductions of
Unmanned aviation systems
Gazprom Neft has identified more than 60 scenarios for using unmanned aviation (drone) systems — in high-altitude laser scanning, in freight transportation, and in monitoring infrastructure construction and status. Specifically, two-thirds of the company’s pipelines (running to a total length of more than 7,000 km) are already monitored using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones). These are equipped with photographic and video cameras, as well as thermal-imaging devices, and can remain airborne for up to seven hours, covering distances of up to 600 km and reaching speeds of up to 120 km/hour. They are used in assessing pipeline integrity and the condition of production infrastructure, in identifying unauthorised activities around infrastructure facilities, and in identifying other violations.
Gazprom Neft was the first company in Russia to use UAVs for multilevel magnetometric surveying. This geological prospecting methodology makes it possible to obtain primary information and data on geological structures by measuring the ground-surface geomagnetic field — an essential activity for subsequent local investigations.
Russian-built UAVs, specifically modified for this project, were shown to survey a
Remotely operated underwater vehicles
Gazprom Neft is using remotely operated underwater vehicles in undertaking underwater operations offshore: these make it possible to investigate the seabed and inspect the condition of wells, equipment and parts of offshore platforms. As well as powerful searchlights and video cameras, underwater robots are equipped with mechanical pincers or “claws” allowing an operator to conduct various technological operations, at considerable depths, remotely.
