Oil workers are dizzy from the numbers

Participants in the oil and gas sector complained to the government about too frequent changes in the methodological recommendations of the Ministry of Digital Development on the digitalization of companies with state participation. Companies must continually re-imagine their digital strategies, which complicates implementation, generates redundant reporting, and creates conflicting demands. The Ministry of Digital Development believes that when digitizing key sectors of the economy, you need to be ready to act quickly.

As Kommersant learned, the head of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov, sent a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, in which he asked to limit changes to methodological recommendations for the digital transformation of state-owned companies. Mr. Dyukov wrote the letter as the head of the industrial competence center “Oil and gas, petrochemicals and subsoil use” (ICC, unites 13 largest industry companies). Updates to the recommendations are made by the Ministry of Digital Development, and, Kommersant’s sources in the companies note, their implementation is considered mandatory by the ministry.

Since the document was approved in 2020, Mr. Dyukov points out, changes have been made to it every year, due to which companies have to update and re-adopt their strategies in this area within three months. At the same time, changes in existing strategies must take into account industry specifics, including the continuity of production processes and the priority of providing consumers with energy resources. This concerns the requirements for import substitution of special software, taking into account the lack of products with similar characteristics in the Russian Federation, as well as the need for long-term testing of digital products for functionality and compatibility.

As a Kommersant source in the industry explains, some recommendations are not yet technically feasible: for example, abandoning the use of Windows from 2025. The latest version of the recommendations states that the share of costs for the purchase of Russian software and related work from companies in the total costs in this area in 2022–2024 should be no less than 80%. Also, participants in the oil and gas sector must increase the use of each type of domestic radio-electronic product by 15% every year in order to increase its total share to at least 40.8% by the beginning of 2025.

“Regular changes to methodological recommendations lead to the need for continuous updating of digitalization strategies, the impossibility of applying a consistent approach to their implementation, the emergence of duplicate and redundant reporting and often conflicting requirements,” notes Alexander Dyukov. ICT participants ask to ensure that the requirements remain unchanged over the medium term, to approve the next edition of the methodological recommendations no earlier than 2025, and then change them no more than once every three years.

A Kommersant source close to one of the ICC members reported that as of December 2023, the industrial landscape of Russian oil, gas and petrochemicals was 76% covered by domestic digital solutions, in this regard the industry is one of the most mature. Alexander Dyukov previously spoke about the goal of achieving 100% by 2028.

The Ministry of Digital Development told Kommersant that when developing new approaches to the transition to digital technologies in important sectors of the economy, such as the fuel and energy complex, one must be prepared to act quickly. “The updating and frequency of changes to methodological recommendations should correspond to modern trends,” the ministry explained. They reported that state-owned companies are actively working to update strategies. Taking into account the interim results, more than 30% of companies have already sent relevant projects for approval to the Ministry of Digital Development after changes to the methodological recommendations made in December 2023.

According to Sergei Vityaev, head of the Exploration and Production in the Oil and Gas Sector at Axenix, the frequency of changes in the recommendations of the Ministry of Digital Development is associated with new factors, such as the emergence of breakthrough technologies (for example, generative models). Decisions made within the framework of the work of the ICC also often require government regulation, he believes: without government participation, customers and suppliers of IT solutions can negotiate for a very long time.

Olga Mordyushenko, Yuri Litvinenko