The Gazprom Board of Directors reviewed and approved the 2016 Progress Report on Gazprom’s Innovative Development Program until 2025 and took note of the information concerning the efficiency of R&D (research and development) investments.
It was highlighted that the successful implementation of measures under the Program helped the Company consistently raise its technological level and improve its production processes through the optimization of all types of resources. Gazprom’s innovative studies are aimed at designing and putting into place domestically-produced high-tech equipment and materials, as well as sophisticated process systems that have no foreign equivalents.
The creation of a new technology for producing methane-hydrogen mixtures is among Gazprom’s priority projects. By using such mixtures, the Company will be able to boost the energy efficiency of its gas compressor units and reduce the emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases from gas turbine units.
Jointly with the Russian Academy of Sciences, Gazprom works to create compact systems with a long service life for storing fixed gas. A prototype of such system is already available. It is an adsorption gas terminal that can accumulate and deliver to consumers almost twice as much natural gas as a compressed gas tank with similar size and pressure parameters.
One of the key priorities in the development of Gazprom Group’s oil business is the advancement of horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracturing technologies used for, among other things, cost-effective development of hard-to-recover oil reserves. In the summer of 2016, Gazprom Neft carried out a 30-stage hydraulic fracturing procedure for the first time in Russia.
Gazprom is among Russia’s leading investors in innovations. Over 440 innovative developments were adopted at the Group’s facilities last year. The total effect from their utilization is expected to exceed RUB 279 billion.
In addition, the Company makes efforts to streamline its innovation management system, promotes sci-tech cooperation with its foreign partners, and deepens its engagement with Russian educational institutions. In 2016, the number of Gazprom’s core universities was increased from 9 to 12. Over the last year, those educational institutions prepared two new R&D programs in addition to the three programs under implementation in the interests of Gazprom. Five more programs are under development at the moment.
The Board of Directors reviewed and commended the work done by the Company with the purpose of implementing import substitution projects in 2016–2017. The Report on the implementation of the corporate import substitution plan in 2016 was approved. The Management Committee was tasked to continue its endeavors in that respect, including by enhancing cooperation with domestic suppliers in the oil and gas industry in order to attain operational improvement, stimulate technological and economic advancement, and make Russian products more competitive.
The Board of Directors reviewed and approved the proposals for ensuring compliance with the auditor’s recommendations following the audit of Gazprom’s Long-Term Development Program for 2015.
