Gazprom Neft wants to launch commercial transportation using helicopters and UAVs

As Kommersant found out, Gazprom Neft is interested in entering the market for helicopter transportation and unmanned cargo delivery for external clients. The first project with the working title Easy Air is aimed at commercial helicopter transportation, including fields and the main cities of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The second company – Easy Dron is considered as an operator of unmanned cargo transportation. Kommersant’s interlocutors in the industry note that there is solvent demand in these segments, but the main problem will be finding a fleet of helicopters and removing regulatory barriers to the use of drones.

According to Kommersant’s information, Gazprom Neft plans to launch commercial transportation using helicopters and unmanned cargo delivery. The first project is called Easy Air, the second one can be called Easy Dron or Cargo Dron. The oil company registered the corresponding domains on July 1, at the time of publication both sites are available in the Google cache. The project is supervised by a subsidiary of the oil company Gazpromneft-Supply.

The Easy Air portal offered helicopter transportation of passengers and cargo from 70 remote points, among which deposits predominate, to Naryan-Mar, Salekhard, Novy Urengoy, Surgut and Khanty-Mansiysk. In the unmanned delivery of goods, the geography of flights was not outlined. Customers were offered their own “digital platform” as an advantage, which allows “easily creating and tracking orders”, as well as the ability to reduce costs by searching for fellow travelers or passing along the chosen direction.

Gazpromneft-Snabzheniya confirmed to Kommersant that new brands will be created for helicopter transportation for external customers. “Their strategies are being formed, there are no approved names,” they stressed there. The press service noted that Gazpromneft-Snabzhenie is the sole operator of Gazprom Neft’s air transportation and “provides helicopter cargo and passenger transportation services to other industrial companies.” Now Gazpromneft-Snabzhenie plans to develop this area, they added: “The company also offers on-board services to improve the convenience of passengers.”

Gazpromneft-Supply is already transporting cargo by drones in Chukotka, the Kamchatka Territory, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and YaNAO, where the pilot-legal regime “Unmanned Air Cargo Delivery” is in force. At the same time, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the industry, so far the company has only little experience in successful unmanned cargo delivery.

The company can also carry out commercial transportation on drones as part of experimental aviation through the Ministry of Industry and Trade, says a Kommersant source in the industry.

The estimated fleet of the carrier is not specified. According to Kommersant’s interlocutor in the industry, Gazprom Neft itself did not lease helicopters from STLC this year and did not buy them from Russian Helicopters. In both companies, “Kommersant” did not answer at the time of publication. Another Kommersant source in the industry suggested that Gazprom Neft could acquire part of the Gazprom Avia fleet, which is part of the same Gazprom group. The fleet of this airline, which specializes mainly in charter and rotational transportation, has, in addition to aircraft, 81 Mi-8 helicopters of various modifications and three multi-purpose AW189s. In “Gazprom Avia” “Kommersant” did not answer.

Two Kommersant sources close to the carrier are not aware of Gazprom Avia’s possible business diversification plans, but they doubt that the decision to enter its route network and create a competitor could be discussed without agreement with the airline and the parent structure.

The issue of delivery by drones is now extremely relevant, and “only lazy companies do not consider such a possibility,” notes Fyodor Borisov, an expert at the Institute of Transport Economics and Transport Policy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. Gazprom Neft, obviously, has a need for transportation and maintaining the route network for its own specialists, so the expert calls the development of this area, coupled with unmanned cargo delivery, extremely logical. “And under what brand to develop and maintain such a direction is the internal business of the company,” he added.

The possibility of additional earnings on transportation with the regular need to deliver shift workers will help the oil company to consolidate this business within its structures, agrees Andrey Kramarenko from the Higher School of Economics. He notes that in the past, oil companies often involved a wide range of carriers in open tenders. However, according to SPARK, Gazprom Neft entered into transportation agreements with Gazprom Avia and UTair Helicopter Services in 2016. In any case, the replenishment of the helicopter fleet is unlikely to become a problem for the structures of Gazprom, says Mr. Kramarenko. And the development of unmanned cargo delivery, he believes, in general, “promises good prospects, but only on condition that the market gets off the ground in terms of regulation.”

Aigul Abdullina, Dmitry Kozlov