On October 6, the round-table discussion Development of technologies and innovative productions, import substitution and export of oil and gas chemistry took place. Key specialists and experts of the industry, as well as representatives of the companies and the state authorities discussed the urgent issues and prospects of the oil chemistry development, import substitutions issues, and matters associated with export and engineering support.
Tatyana Yershova, Principal Councilor of the General Director of the Russian Energy Agency at the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, shared the report by Daria Borisova, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company. From 1990 to 2005, the chemical industry development advanced the global gross domestic product by 1.6%. However, in the recent years this rate reduced to 1.4%. In the nearest future, the rates are going to slow down to 1.1%, but this sphere is definitely going to develop faster than the global gross domestic product.
The oil and gas sector substitutes the materials like metals and wood, and is used in various industries, and finds more and more applications thanks to innovations. However, there is a negative trend, too – the countries with advanced economies tend to cut down their expenses. There is a concept of the closed cycle and plastic recycling. Oil depreciation almost had no effect on the profit amount. Daria Borisova, the author of the research, explains that as the prices reduced, the primecost of goods was reduced, too, whereas the price formation went on with account to the high-cost manufacturers. Thus, the companies that had cheap raw got out of it.
“There are no Russian technologies in any programs of the industry development. Our production sites use imported technologies, and that is how we lull ourselves into severe dependence on both the projects and concurrent chemical products. At the same time, we have all the necessary scientific potential. Our country has issues with investments and workforce. Even Iran is developing faster despite all the sanctions. If we open the McKinsey report, we’ll see that our country invests 200 times less into the industry development”, said Anton Maximov, Ph. D. in Chemistry. However, there is a way – we need to build a finance system that will facilitate development of our own technologies, we need to improve the quality of education, and for the first thing, we need to determine who is responsible for designing the strategy for the entire oil chemical industry.
Igor Ananskikh, Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Board of the Russian Federation of the 6th convening, Member of the State Duma Energy Committee, told the audience that the matter of import substitution hadn’t been fixed in the oil chemical industry. Russia had lost about 20 years of development with regard to oil chemistry, if compared with other countries, and now China is in the lead.
“We have the development programs, but we are falling behind in terms of fulfilling them. Our science funding is poor, and the Russian scientists are mistrusted. To solve these issues, we need support and guarantees from the state, and we need the industry-specific institutions established,” Ananskikh believes.