Russian energy cos prepared to share IT advances, join forces on import substitution
MOSCOW. July 12 (Interfax) - Russian companies are prepared to share their advances in information technology with one another and coordinate efforts on import substitution in this area, representatives of big business said at a roundtable on Digital Transformation and Technological Independence in Industry held by the Association of Managers and the Digital Economy organization.
"There are the most difficult technological challenges in the field of IT. Well, we shared information on them with our colleagues and in the past two weeks we have arrived at 11 major areas," Gazprom Neft digital transformation director Andrei Belevtsev said.
He said different companies have made different progress on these areas. "Some companies are prepared to take on the main role in some of these areas, and some in others," Belevtsev said.
Gazprom Neft, for example, is prepared to share its advances in the area of manufacturing execution systems (MES), which have undergone real-world testing at the Omsk Oil Refinery.
In general, there are no risks for process continuity in the oil and gas sector due to sanctions against Russia, Belevtsev said. "The sector was decently prepared for any turn of events. At the same time, there is a certain consolidation on those large sets of problems that need to be solved. Mainly [in specific segments] it is not famine, but neither is it a feast," he said.
In many areas, the features of Russian IT solutions are inferior to comprehensive imported solutions, he said. Nonetheless, there are enough products on the Russian market that can replace them.
Russian industry also faces big challenges in the area of process automation systems (PAS), and not just with the IT component, Belevtsev said.
"At most large Russian enterprises, when creating PAS they relied on foreign solutions. Therefore, the transition to Russian PAS will create huge demand for these solutions. As a result, by our estimates, Russian producers of such systems will have to scale up by seven to eight times in order to meet the demand of Russian customers," he said.
Other participants in the roundtable also said it is necessary to cooperate and work together on import substitution of IT solutions in industry.
The digital and information technologies director at Sibur Holding and CEO of Sibur Digital, Alisa Melnikova said there are problems with timely development of specific information systems for the oil and gas industry.
"Deep industry competencies are needed here and we are prepared to act as a consultant, expert, pilot platform and qualified customer in their development," Melnikova said.
She also proposed to set up industry working groups. "There need to be several qualified customers in each such group who would develop two or three areas [for development of specialized solutions]," Melnikova said.
"We are all prepared to come together and look for systemic solutions. Before this [cooperation] was getting off to a slow start. Now is a difficult time, but at the same time it presents an opportunity for the government and the country to lay new groundwork, rethink and transition to a new technological paradigm," the deputy director of digitization and head of the industrial solutions program at state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Yevdokia Rukavishnikova said.
Gazprom Mezhregiongaz said in the spring that it was prepared to offer access to its IUSTSIFRA digital platform to a broad range of users.
"The new platform is an alternative environment for developing one's own programs to foreign IT solutions. The uniqueness of the domestic development IUSTSIFRA is that it can be applied in virtually any sector. For example, integrated with smart meters and smart home systems, and in general used for provision of various types of services to end customers," Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Engineering CEO Alexei Minchenko said in March.