Space for pipeline: Trends and Prospects of Aerospace technologies application in the Oil and Gas industry were discussed at the meeting of the Working Committee of the International Business Congress
The XIV Meeting of the Working committee of the International Business Congress “Modern Technologies and Prospective Projects in Oil & Gas Sector” was held on June 24, 2021, both in in-person and remote mode, chaired by Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom PJSC.
The meeting took place in Shchelkovo, near Moscow, on the premises of the Telecommunications Center of Gazprom Space Systems, which hosted the fourteenth meeting of the Committee. The key topic was the trends and prospects of aerospace technologies application in the oil and gas industry.
The current year is a landmark for the space industry: the world is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first human space flight, and the Russian space industry celebrates 75 years since its initiation – foundation of the Scientific-Research Institute No.88 (today’s Central Research Institute of Machine Building) and Scientific-Research Reactive Institute of the Chief Directorate of Missile Troops and Artillery – Central Scientific-Research Institute No. 4 of the Russia’s Ministry of Defense in Korolev, near Moscow. It is no coincidence that the business part of the meeting was preceded by a visit to the Museum of the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, where the participants of the event could get introduced to the history of domestic rocket and space hardware creation: from the first long-range ballistic missiles to Energia launch vehicle and Sea Launch space rocket complex, from the first Earth-satellite vehicles to manned and transportation spacecraft of all modifications. The tone of the key topic discussion was set by cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Petr Dubrov, who welcomed the participants of the IBC directly from the International Space station (ISS).
“The efficiency of the economic and social development depends largely on the space technologies. And first of all, this is understood by the global energy sector, which is one of the leaders in the introduction of satellite communications and Earth remote sensing technologies into its production processes. Today, Gazprom's communication satellites called Yamal are on duty in space. Observing the boundless expanses of the Earth through the windows of the Station, one realizes how satellite communications are necessary for people. It is only satellite communication, thanks to its globality, which is capable to reach the most remote corners of the Earth and equalize all its inhabitants in access to information resources,” – the astronauts noted. Currently, Gazprom, with the support of Roskosmos, is implementing a project in Shchelkovo to create a modern Spacecraft Assembly, Integration and Testing Facility, which, according to the ISS cosmonauts, promotes the development of the Russian space industry. “It's cheering to know that thanks to Gazprom, space is getting closer to people, working for their benefit,” – they said.
The leading experts of the space industry and its legendary representatives participated proactively in the meeting. Thus, the Presidium included Evgeniy Vasil’ev, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Moscow Region, Yury Urlichich, First Deputy Director General for Orbital Fleet Development and Prospective Projects of Roscosmos State Corporation, Dmitry Sevastiyanov, Director General of Gazprom Space Systems, as well as Vladimir Solov’ev, 56th Soviet Cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, General Designer of Rocket and Space Corporation Energia.
As Vitaly Markelov noted in his opening speech, the space technologies have tightly entered into people’s life and become a part of everyday life: “We use space technologies every day without even giving a thought to it: we just turn on TV, go online and send messages to each other… and all this is backed by space technologies and efforts of many prominent people”.
Achievements that laid the ground for the emergence of a new industry in the Soviet times, are being developed today by Gazprom PJSC and its partners in the best interests of the Russian economy and the whole country. Within the framework of the Working Committee session “Modern Technologies and Prospective Projects in Oil & Gas Sector” Gazprom shared its experience in space technologies development.
Gazprom Space Systems is an important link for Gazprom. As it is known, the facilities, where our company operates, are located in hard to reach regions – Yamal, Eastern Siberia, Far East, where there are no people yet, and we step there to perform exploration activities and produce gas. And, of course, we need continuous communication with these facilities in real-time mode. And Gazprom Space Systems does this job,” – said Vitaly Markelov. The construction of the Spacecraft Assembly, Integration and Testing Facility is currently ongoing in Shchelkovo, Moscow Region. The project is implemented by Gazprom with the support of Roscosmos.
“Gazprom is a terrific forge of space technologies, among others. And the future definitely belongs to such [intersectoral] symbiosis. We sincerely believe that other technologies will also come to the space industry from Gazprom. We, in our turn, also implement projects in the interest of Gazprom within import phase-out process”, - said Yury Urlichich.
Vladimir Solov’ev presented the concept of a new Russian orbital station that would cover high latitudes, including oil and gas bearing regions of Siberia and the Arctic, promising for the Russian Federation and Gazprom, where communications, navigation and Earth remote sensing could be organized with the help of the space industry. “Since the time of Sergey Korolev, space research, especially manned, requires the availability of serious and reliable modern technologies. The oil and gas industry also uses the most advanced technologies. There is such a notion: “technology flow-over”, within which we definitely need to work closely together. The fact is that many modern vehicles, including manned ones, sometimes have such capabilities that we do not even know about, and these achievements can be extended to the Earth to get an even more profound effect from their use,” – said Vladimir Solov’ev. Yury Urlichich acquainted the members of the IBC with the prospects for the introduction of space information technologies created within the framework of the SPHERE program in the oil and gas sector among the other sectors of the economy.
“At the last SPIEF, Gazprom, Roskosmos and Rosatom signed an agreement within which they agreed that not just systems, but a new understanding of the market would be created. This, of course, would be a market with the use of space technologies that Gazprom needs to create a unified system for geotechnical monitoring of hazardous production facilities, and Rosatom also needs for the Northern Sea Route [...] And this is our future: we should not only manufacture satellites, but also think about how these satellites can be useful to all of us. In particular, we all think about the environment, and this problem is clear to everyone. The fines paid by companies for environmental disasters would pay for the creation of not only one, but several orbital constellations that could carry out monitoring using the technology proposed by Gazprom to prevent accidents,”- said Yury Urlichich.
Commenting on the use of space technologies in the oil and gas industry for integrity control of the pipelines and prevention of environmental catastrophes, Vitaly Markelov underlined that such processes as land subsidence and breakthroughs, do not occur instantly, they are accumulated changes, which can be efficiently tracked by means of the Earth remote sensing technologies. Gazprom proactively uses such technologies. In particular, within the framework of the Power of Siberia project, the trunk pipeline of which crosses the tectonic subduction zones. Any deviations of the pipeline may be tracked thanks to the satellites.
Dmitry Sevastiyanov, Director General of Gazprom Space Systems JSC, elaborated on the use of aerospace technologies for monitoring and control of Gazprom Group facilities.
The attendees of the meeting learned about the contribution of corporate science in the development of aerospace technologies from Maksim Nedzvetskiy, Deputy Head of Department of Gazprom PJSC, General Director of Gazprom VNIIGAZ LLC. VNIIGAZ, as the head scientific center of Gazprom, provides R&D and procedural support of aerospace technologies, as well as assists in introduction of satellite methods in the production activities.
“Our institute is a unified competence center for geodynamic monitoring and a performer of work on the creation of mining and geological justifications and projects of geodynamic polygons,” – said Maksim Nedzvetskiy.
The introduction of aerospace technologies, according to him, will ensure the operational safety, as well as will give a specific economic benefit. Thus, the justified replacement of ground-based traditional leveling measurements by satellite ones allows saving about 80% of monitoring costs while obtaining significantly more information about the facility.
Petr Korvyakov, First Deputy Director General of Gazprom Space Systems JSC, spoke in detail about solving the problems of geotechnical, ice and environmental monitoring of the production infrastructure of Gazprom Group based on the universal small space platform. Detection of methane leakages is one of the areas under development today by the experts.
Andrey Belevtsev, Director of the Directorate for Digital Transformation of Gazprom Neft PJSC, shared with the IBC members his experience in using unmanned aerial systems in the production chain of the company.
Carlo Morucci, Head of Business Development in Oil and Gas, Environment, Land Use, Security, Marine Navigation at e-Geos (Italy), who joined via videoconference, talked about the use of radar satellite data to support exploration and production activities in the oil and gas sector. Ashot Bakunts, Regional Director of Thales Alenia Space in Russia, made a report about "Space technologies for life".
Young scientists also contribute to the development of space technologies, as reported by Elvin Akhadov, executive director of the scientific and technical journal "Gas Industry", who invited the participants of the meeting to join the experts and partners of the IV International Competition for Young Scientists "Oil and Gas Projects: A Look into the Future".
In the summary of the results of the XIV Meeting of the Working Committee of the International Business Congress “Modern Technologies and Prospective Projects in Oil & Gas Sector”, Vitaly Markelov noted that besides the advantages of the space technologies development that were mentioned, this business line will open the way for Gazprom to increase the reliability of gas supply and implement efficiently the gasification of the regions of Russia, under which three times more gas pipelines will be built than over the last five years.
In conclusion of the meeting, Irina Inzhevatova, Executive Secretary of the IBC, announced the possibility of participation by the Congress members in the general meeting scheduled for September 17, 2021, both in-person and online, in one of three cities: Singapore, St. Petersburg or Berlin, with studios connected by videobridge. On the eve of this event, on September 15 and 16, meetings of the working committees will be held.
